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THE CAPITOL 



THE LIVES 



OF 



JAMES MADISON 



AND 



JAMES MONHOE. 



FOURTH AND FIFTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, 



BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



WITH 



HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THEIR ADMINISTRATIONS. 





BOSTON: 




PHILLIPS, 


SAMPSON fc CO. 
B U F F A L : 


PUBLISHERS 


GEO. H. DERBY AND CO. 




1850. 


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7 



TO THE 

FRIENDS OF REPUBLICANISM, 

THESE 

LIVES OF ITS EARLY AND ABLE EXPOUNDERS, 

ITS MODEL EXEMPLIFIERS, 

AND ITS TRIUMPHANT ADVOCATES, 

ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGK. 



Life of James Madison, .... 9 
Notices op his Administration, . . 106 



Life op James Monroe, . , . .197 
Notices of his Administration, . . 297 



PREFACE. 



Now that John Quincy Adams — the sage, the phi- 
losopher, and the statesman — has been gathered to 
his fathers, an air of sanctity, never witnessed while 
he was in Yife, surronnds everything he wrote or ut- 
tered ; and the odor of nationaUty " rises gratefully, 
from the emanations of his brilliant genius, and the 
productions of his superior intellect." 

He, indeed, touched nothing that he did not adorn 
with the rich charms of the language he moulded at 
his will, or the mental treasures of his inexhaustible 
store. And no one, perhaps, among American states- 
men or men of letters, was better able than he to 
pronounce the eulogies of Madison and Monroe. 

In presenting to the public, these chef-d' ccuvres of 
a master hand, in a permanent form, the editor has 
not the vanity to suppose he can add a single additional 
charm. And yet, to the lover of history, and to the 
politician, the notices of the administrations of those 
two most eminent disciples of Thomas Jefferson, which 
accompany them, may not be withoutnnterest. 



VIU PREFACE. 

One consideration which, above all others, has in- 
duced the preparation of these notices, is, that we 
have nothing of a similar character, except what has 
proceeded from political opponents. 

THE EDITOR. 

New York, January, 1850. 



LIFE 



OP 



JAMES MADISON. 



* 



When the imperial despot of Persia surveyed the 
myriads of his vassals, whom he had assembled for the 
invasion and conquest of Greece, we are told by the 
father of profane history,! that the monarch's heart, 
at first, distended with pride, but immediately after- 
wards sunk within him, and turned to tears of anguish 
at the thought, that within one hundred years from 
that day, not one of all the countless numbers of his 
host would remain in the land of the living. 

The brevity of human life had afforded a melancholy 
contemplation to wiser and better men than Xerxes, 
in ages long before that of his own existence. It is 
still the subject of philosophical reflection or of Chris- 
tian resignation, to the Uving man of the present age. 
It will continue such, so long as the race of man shall 
exist upon earth. 

* Written in 1836, at the request of the two houses of Congress. 
t Herodotus. 

1* 



10 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

But it is the condition of our nature to look before 
and after : The Persian tyrant looked^, forward, and la- 
mented the shortness of life ; but in that century which 
bounded his nnental vision, he knew not what was to 
come to pass, for weal or woe, to the race whose tran- 
sitory nature he deplored, and his own purposes, hap- 
pily baffled by the elements which he with absurd pre- 
sumption would have chastised, were of the most odi- 
ous and detestable character. 

Reflections upon the shortness of time allotted to 
individual man upon this planet, may be turned to more 
useful account, by connecting them with ages past 
than with those that are to come. The family of man 
is placed upon this congregated ball to earn an im- 
proved condition hereafter by improving his own con- 
dition here — and this duty of improvement is not less 
a social than a selfish principle. We are bound to ex- 
ert all the faculties bestowed upon us by our Maker, 
to improve our own condition, by improving that of 
our fellow men ; and the precept that we should love 
our neierhbor as ourselves, and that we should do to 
others as we would that they should do unto us, are 
but examples of that duty of co-operation to the im- 
provement of his kind, which is the first law of God 
to man, unfolded alike in the volumes of nature and of 
inspiration. 

Let us look hack then for consolation from the 
thought of the shortness of human life, as urged upon 
us by the recent decease of James Madison, one of 
the pillars and ornaments of his country and of his age. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 11 

His time on earth was short, yet he died fall of years 
and of glory — less, far less than one hundred years 
have elapsed since the day of his birth — yet has he 
fulfilled, nobly fulfilled, his destinies as a man and a 
Christian. He has improved his ov^^n condition by im- 
proving that of his country and his kind. 

He was born in Orange County, in the British Colo- "'* 
ny of Virginia, on the 5th of March, 1750 ; or ac- 
cording to the Gregorian calendar, adopted the year 
after that of his birth, on the 16th of March, 1751, of 
a distinguished and opulent family ; and received the 
early elements of education partly at a public school 
under the charge of Donald Robertson, and afterwards 
in the paternal mansion under the private tuition of the 
Rev. Thomas Martin, by whose instructions he was ^ 
prepared for admission at Princeton College. 

There are three stages in the history of the North 
American Revolution — the first of which may be con- 
sidered as commencing with the order of the British 
Council for enforcing the acts of trade in 1760, and as 
having reached its crisis at the meeting of the first 
Congress fourteen years after at Philadelphia. It was 
a struggle for the preservation and recovery of the 
rights and liberties of the British Colonies. It termi- 
nated in a civil war, the character and object of which 
was changed by the Declaration of Independence. 

The second stage is that of the War of Indepen- 
dence, usually so called — but it began fifteen months 
before the Declaration, and was itself the immediate 
cause and not the effect of that event. It closed by 



13 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

the preliminary Treaty of Peace concluded at Paris 
on the 30th of Novennber, 1782, 

The third is the formation of the Anglo-American 
People and Nation of North America. This event 
was completed by the meeting of the first Congress of 
the United States under their present Constitution, on 
the 4th of March, 1789, Thirty years is the usual 
computation for the duration of one generation of the 
human race. The space of time from 1760 to 1790 
includes the generation with which the North Amer- 
ican Revolution began, passed through all its stages, 
and ended. 

The attention of the civilized European world, and 
perhaps an undue proportion of our own, has been 
drawn to the second of these three stages — to the con- 
test with Great Britain for Independence. It was an 
arduous and apparently a very unequal conflict. But 
it was not without example in the annals of mankind. 
It has often been remarked that the distinction between 
rebelhon and revolution consists only in the event, and 
is marked only by difference of success. But to a just 
estimate of human affairs there are other elementary 
materials of estimation. A revolution of government, 
to the leading minds by which it is undertaken, is an 
object to be accomplished. William Tell, Gustavus 
Vasa, William of Orange, had been the leaders of rev- 
olutions, the object of which had been the establish- 
ment or the recovery of popular liberties. But in 
neither of those cases had the part performed by those 
individuals been the result of deliberation or design. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. " 13 

The sphere of action in all those cases was incompara- 
bly more limited and confined — the geographical di- 
mensions of the scene narrow and contracted — the po- 
litical principles brought into collision of small com- 
pass — no foundation of the social compact to be laid — 
no people to be formed — the popular government of the 
American Revolution had been preceded by a foresee- 
ing and directing mind. I mean not to say by one 
mind ; but by a pervading mind, which in a preceding 
age had inspired the prophetic verses of Berkley, and 
which may be traced back to the first Puritan settlers 
of Plymouth and of Massachusetts Bay. "From the 
first institution of the Company of Massachusetts 
Bay," says Dr. Robertson, "its members seem to have 
been animated with a spirit of innovation in civil poli- 
cy as well as in religion ; and by the habit of rejecting 
established usages in the one, they were prepared for 
deviating from them in the other. They had applied 
for a royal charter, in order to give legal effect to their 
operations in England, as acts of a body politic ; but 
the persons whom they sent out to America, as soon as 
they landed there, considered themselves as individu- 
als, united together by voluntary association, possess- 
ing the natural right of men who form a society to 
adopt what mode of government and to enact what 
laws they deemed most conducive to general felicity." 
And such had continued to be the prevailing spirit 
of the people of New England from the period of their 
settlement to that of the revolution. The people of 
Virginia, too notwithstanding their primitive loyalty, 



14 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

had been trained to revolutionary doctrines and to war- 
like habits ; by their frequent collision with Indian 
wars ; by the convulsions of Bacon's rebelUon, and by 
the wars with France, of which their own borders 
were the theatre, down to the close of the war which 
immediately preceded that of the revolution. The 
contemplation and the defiance of danger, a qualifica- 
tion for all great enterprise and achievement upon 
earth, was from the very condition of their existence, a 
property almost universal to the British Colonists in 
North America ; and hardihood of body, unfettered 
energy of intellect and intrepidity of spirit, fitted them 
for trials, which the feeble and enervated races of 
other ages and climes could never have gone through. 
For the three several stages of this new Epocha in 
the earthly condition of man, a superintending Provi- 
dence had ordained that there should arise from the 
native population of the soil, individuals with minds 
organized and with spirits trained to the exigencies of 
the times, and to the successive aspects of the social 
state. In the contest of principle which originated 
with the attempt of the British Government to burden 
their Colonies with taxation by act of Parliament, the 
natural rights of mankind found efficient defenders in 
James Otis, Patrick Henry, John Dickinson, Josiah 
Quincy, Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee and numerous 
other writers of inferior note. As the contest changed 
its character, Samuel and John Adams and Thomas 
Jeflferson were among the first who raised the standard 
of Independence and prepared the people for the con- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. ' 15 

flict through which they were to pass. For the con- 
test of physical force by arms, Washington, Charles 
Lee, Putnam, Green, Gates, and a graduation of others 
of inferior ranks had been prepared by the preceding 
wars — by the conquest of Canada and by the previous 
capture of Louisburg. From the beginning of the 
war, every action was disputed with the perseverance 
and tenacity of veteran combatants, and the minute 
men of Lexington and Bunker's Hill were as little pre- 
pared for flight at the onset as the Macedonian pha- 
lanx of Alexander or the tenth legion of Julius Caesar. 

But the great w^ork of the North American revolu 
tion was not in the maintenance of the rights of the 
British Colonies by argument, nor in the conflict of 
physical force by war. The Declaration of Indepen- 
dence annulled the national character of the American 
people. That character had been common to them all 
as subjects of one and the same sovereign, and that 
sovereign was a king. The dissolution of that tie was 
pronounced by one act common to them all, and it left 
them as members of distinct communities in the rela- 
tions towards each other, bound only by the obligations 
of the law of nature and of the Union, by which they 
had renounced their connexion with the mother coun- 
try. 

But what was to be the condition of their national 
existence 1 This was the problem of difficult solution 
for them ; and this was the opening of the new era in 
the science of government and in the history of man- 
kind. 



16 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

Their municipal governments were founded upon the 
common law of England, modified by their respective 
charters ; by the Parliamentary law of England so far 
as it had been adopted hy their usages, and by the en- 
actments of their own Legislative assemblies. This 
was a complicated system of law, and has formed a 
subject of much internal perplexity to many of the 
States of the Union, and in several of them continues 
unadjusted to this day. By the common consent of 
all, however, this was reserved for the separate and ex- 
clusive regulation of each state within itself. 

As a member of the community of nations, it was 
also agreed that they should constitute one body — 
"E Pluribus Unum" was the device which they as- 
sumed as the motto for their common standard. And 
there was one great change from their former condi- 
tion, which they adopted with an unanimity so abso- 
lute, that no proposition of a different character was 
ever made before them. It was that all their govern- 
ments should be republican. They were determined 
not only to be separately republics, but to tolerate no 
other form of government as constituting a part of their 
community. A natural consequence of this determi- 
nation was that they should remain separate indepen- 
dencies, and the first suggestion which presented itself 
to them, was that their Union should be merely a con- 
federation. 

In the first and in the early part of the second stage 
of the revolution, the name of James Madison had 
not appeared. At the commencement of the contest 



lilFE OF JAMES MADISON. 17 

he was but ten years of age. When the first blood 
was shed, here in the streets of Boston, he was a stu- 
dent in the process of his education at Princeton Col- 
lege, where the next year, 1771, he received the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. He was even then so highly dis- 
tinguished by the power of application and the rapidity 
of his progress, that he performed all the exercises of 
the two senior Collegiate years in one — while at the 
same time his deportment was so exemplary, that Dr. 
Witherspoon, then at the head of that College, and af- 
terwards himself one of the most eminent Patriots and 
Sages of our revolution, always delighted in bearing 
testimony to the excellency of his character at that 
early stage of his career ; and said to Thomas Jefferson 
long afterwards, when they were all colleagues in the 
revolutionary Congress, that in the whole career of 
Mr. Madison at Princeton, he had never known him to 
say or do an indiscreet thing. 

Discretion in its influence upon the conduct of men is 
the parent of moderate and conciliatory counsels, and 
these were peculiarly indispensable to the perpetuation 
of the American Union, and to the prosperous advance- 
ment and termination of the revolution, precisely at the 
period when Mr. Madison was first introduced into 
public life. 

In 1775, among the earliest movements of the revo- 
lutionary contest, he was a member of the Committee 
of PubHc Safety of the County of Orange, and in 1776, 
of the Convention substituted for the ordinary Legis- 
lature of the Colony. By one of those transient ca- 



18 I.IIi: or JAMES MADISON. 

prices of popular favour, wliich sometimes influence 
elections, he was not returned to the House of Dele- 
gates in 1777, but was immediately after elected by 
that body to the Executive Council, of which he con- 
tinued a leading member till the close of the year 
1779, and was then transferred by the Legislature to 
the representation of the Commonwealth in the Conti- 
nental Congress. His first entrance into pubhc Ufe was 
signalized by the resolution of the Convention of the 
State, instructing their Delegates to vote for the Inde- 
pendence of the Colonies ; by the adoption of a de- 
claration of rights, and by their organization of a State 
government, which continued for more than half a cen- 
tury the Constitution of the Commonwealth before it 
underwent the revision of the people ; an event in 
which he was destined again to take a conspicuous 
part. On the 20th of March, 1780, he took his seat 
as a delegate in the Congress of the Confederation. 
It was then in the midst of the revolution, and under 
the influence of its most trying scenes, that his politi- 
cal character was formed ; and then it was that the 
virtue of discretion, the spirit of moderation, the con- 
ciliatory temper of compromise found room for exer- 
cise in its most comprehensive extent. 

One of the provisions in the articles of Confedera- 
tion most strongly marked with that same spirit of 
Liberty, the vital breath of the contest in which our 
fathers were engaged ; the true and undying conser- 
vative spirit by which we their children enjoy that 
Freedom which they achieved ; but which like all 



LIFE OF JAAIES MADISOINT. 19 

Other pure and virtuous principles sometimes leads to 
error by its excess, was that no member of this om- 
nipotent Congress should hold that office more than 
three years in six. This provision, hov^^ever, was con- 
strued not to have commenced its operation until the 
final ratification of the articles by all the States on the 
first of March, 1781. Mr. Madison remained in Con 
gress nearly four years, from the 20th of March, 1780, 
till the first Monday in November, 1783. He was 
thus a member of that body during the last stages of 
the revolutionary war and for one year after the con- 
clusion of the Peace. He had, during that period, 
unceasing opportunities to observe the mortifying in- 
efficiency of the merely federative principle upon 
which the Union of the States had been organized, 
and had taken an active part in all the remedial meas- 
ures proposed by Congress for amending the Articles 
of Confederation, 

A Confederation is not a country. There is no 
magnet of attraction in any league of Sovereign and 
Independent States which causes the heart-strings of 
the individual man to vibrate in unison with those of 
his neighbor. Confederates are not Countrymen, as 
the tie of affinity by convention can never be so close 
as the tie of kindred by blood. The Confederation of 
the North American States was an e.xperiment of in- 
estimable value, even by its failure. It taught our 
fathers the lesson, that they had more, infinitely more 
to do than merely to achieve their Independence by 
war. That they must form their social compact upon 



20 LIFE OF JAME8 MADISON. 

principles never before attempted upon earth. That 
the Achean league of ancient days, the Hanseatic 
league of the middle ages, the leagues of Switzerland 
or of the Netherlands of later times, furnished no 
precedent upon which they could safely build their la- 
bouring plan of State. The Confederation was per- 
haps as closely knit together as it was possible that 
such a form of poHty could be grappled ; but it was 
matured by the State Legislatures without consulta- 
tion with the People, and the jealousy of sectional 
collisions, and the distrust of all delegation of power, 
stamped every feature of the work with inefficiency. 

The deficiency of powers in the Confederation was 
immediately manifested in their inability to regulate 
the commerce of the country, and to raise revenue, 
indispensable for the discharge of the debt accumu- 
lated in the progress of the Revolution. Repeated 
efforts were made to supply this deficiency ; but al- 
ways without success. 

On the 3d of February, 1781, it was recommended 
to the several States as indispensably necessary that 
they should vest a power in Congress to levy for the 
use of the United States a duty of five per cent, ad 
valorem upon foreign importations, and all prize goods 
condemned in a Court of Admiralty ; the money 
arising from those duties to be appropriated to the 
discharge of the debts contracted for the support of 
the war. 

On the 18th of April, 1783, a new recommendation 
was adopted by Resolutions of nine States, as indis- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 21 

pensably necessary to the restoration of public credit, 
and to the punctual and honorable discharge of the 
public debt, to invest the Congress with a power to 
lay certain specific duties upon spirituous liquors, tea, 
sugar, coffee and cocoa, and five per cent, ad valorem 
upon all other imported articles of merchandise, to 
be exclusively appropriated to the payment of the 
principal or interest of the public debt. 

And that as a further provision for the payment of 
the interest of the debt, the States themselves should 
levy a revenue to furnish their respective quotas of 
an aggregate annual sum of one million five hundred 
thousand dollars. 

And that to provide a further guard for the pay- 
ment of the same debts, to hasten their extinguish- 
ment, and to establish the harmony of the United 
States, the several States should make liberal cessions 
to the Union of their territorial claims. 

With this act a Committee, consisting of Mr. Mad- 
ison, Mr, Ellsworth and Mr. Hamilton, was appoint- 
ed to prepare an address to the States, which on the 
26th of the same month was adopted, and transmitted 
together with eight documentary papers, demonstra- 
ting the necessity that the measures recommended by 
the act should be adopted by the States. 

This address, one of those incomparable State pa- 
pers which more than all the deeds of arms immortal- 
ized the rise, progress and termination of the North 
American revolution, was the composition of James 
Madison. After compressing into a brief and lumin- 



22 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

ous summary all the unanswerable arguments to in- 
duce the restoration and maintenance of the public 
faith, it concluded with the following solemn and pro- 
phetic admonition : 

" Let it be remembered, that it has ever been the 
pride and boast of America, that the rights for which 
she contended, were the rights of human nature. By 
the blessing of the Author of these rights on the means 
exerted for their defence, they have prevailed over all 
opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent 
States. No instance has heretofore occurred, nor can 
any instance be expected hereafter to occur, in which 
the unadulterated forms of republican Government 
can pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying 
themselves by their fruits. In this view the citizens 
of the United States are responsible for the greatest 
trust ever confided to a poUtical society. If justice, 
good faith, honor, gratitude and all other qualities 
which ennoble the character of a nation, and fulfil the 
ends of Government be the fruits of our establish- 
ments, the cause of Liberty will acquire a dignity and 
lustre which it has never yet enjoyed ; and an ex- 
ample will be set w^hich cannot but have the most 
favorable influence on the rights of mankind. If, on 
the other side, our Governments should be unfortu- 
nately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal and 
essential virtues, the great cause which we have en- 
gaged to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed ; 
the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights 
of human nature will be turned against them ; and 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 23 

their patrons and friends exposed to be insulted and 
silenced by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation." 

My countrymen ! do not youi* hearts burn within 
you at the recital of these words, when the retrospect 
brings to your minds the time when, and the person 
by whom they were spoken 1 Compare them with 
the closing paragraphs of the address from the first 
Congress of 1774, to your forefathers, the people of 
the Colonies. 

" Your own salvation and that of your posterity 
now depends upon yourselves. Against the tempo- 
rary inconveniences you may suffer from a stoppage 
of Trade, you will weigh in the opposite balance the 
endless miseries you and your descendants must en- 
dure from an established arbitrary power. You will 
not forget the Honor of your Country that must, from 
your behavior, take its title in the estimation of the 
world to Glory or to Shame ; and you will with the 
deepest attention reflect, that if the peaceable mode 
of opposition recommended by us be broken and ren- 
dered ineffectual, you must inevitably be reduced to 
choose either a more dangerous contest, or a final 
ruinous and infamous submission. We think ourselves 
bound in duty to observe to you that the schemes agi- 
tated against these Colonies have been so conducted 
as to render it prudent that you should extend your 
views to mournful events and be in all respects pre- 
pared for every contingency." 

That was the trumpet of summons to the conflict 
of the revolution ; as the address of April, 1783 was 



24 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

the note of triumph at its close. They were the first 
and the last words of the Spirit, which in the germ 
of the Colonial contest, brooded over its final fruit, 
the universal emancipation of civilized man. 

Compare them both with the opening and closing 
paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, too 
deeply rivited in your memories to need the repetition 
of them by me ; and you have the unity of action es- 
sential to all heroic achievement for the benefit of 
mankind, and you have the character from its opening 
to its close ; the beginning, the middle and the end of 
that unexampled, and yet unimitated moral and pohti- 
cal agent, the Revolutionary North American Con- 
gress. 

But the Address of 1783 marks the commencement 
of one era in American History as well as the close 
of another. Madison, Ellsworth, Hamilton, were 
not of the Congress of 1774, nor yet of the Congress 
which declared Independence. They were of a suc- 
ceeding generation, men formed in and by the revolu- 
tion itself. They had imbibed the Spirit of the revo- 
lution, but the nature of their task was changed. 
Theirs was no longer the duty to call upon their coun- 
trymen to extend their views to mournful events, and 
to prepare themselves for every contingency. But 
more emphatically than even the Congress of 1774, 
were they required to warn their fellow citizens that 
their salvation and that of their posterity depended 
upon themselves. 

The warfare of self defence against foreign oppres- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 25 

sion was accomplished. Independence, unqualified, 
commercial and political, was acheived and recog- 
' nised. But there was yet in substance no nation — no 
people — no country common to the Union. These 
had been self-formed in the heat of the common strug- 
gle for freedom ; and evaporated in the very success 
of the energies they had inspired. A Confederation 
of separate State Sovereignties, never sanctioned by 
the body of the people, could furnish no effective 
Government for the nation. A cold and lifeless indif- 
ference to the rights, the interests, and the duties of 
the Union had fallen like a palsy upon all -their facul- 
ties instead of that almost supernatural vigor which, 
at the origin of their contest, had inscribed upon their 
banners, and upon their hearts, "join or die." 

In November, 1783, Mr. Madison's constitutional 
term of service in Congress, as limited by the restric- 
tion in the articles of Confederation, expired. But 
his talents were not lost to his Country. He was 
elected the succeeding year a member of the Legisla- 
ture of his native State, and continued by annual elec- 
tion in that station till November, 1786, when having 
become re-eligible to Congress, he was again returned 
to that body, and on the 12th of February, 1787, re- 
sumed his seat among its members. 

In the Legislature of Virginia, his labors, during 
his absence of three years from the general councils 
of the Confederacy, were not less arduous and unre- 
mitting, nor less devoted to the great purposes of rev- 
olutionary legislation, than while he had been in Con- 



26 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

gress. The colony of Virginia had been settled un- 
der the auspicies of the Episcopal Churh of England. 
It was there the established Church ; and all other 
religious denominations, there, as in England, were 
stigmatized with the name of dissenters. For the 
support of this Church, the Colonial laws prior to 
the revolution had subjected to taxation all the 
inhabitants of the Colony, and it had been endowed 
with grants of property by the Crown. The elfect of 
this had naturally been to render the Church establish- 
ment unpopular, and the clergy of that establishment 
generally unfriendly to the revolution. After the 
close of the War, in the year 1784, Mr. Jefferson in- 
troduced into the Legislature a Bill for the establish- 
ment of Religious Freedom. The principle of the 
Bill was the abohtion of all taxation for the support 
of Religion, or of its Ministers, and to place the 
freedom of all religious opinions wholly beyond the 
control of the Legislature. These purposes were 
avowed, and supported by a long argumentative pre- 
amble. The Bill failed however to obtain the assent 
of the Assembly, and instead of it they prepai-ed and 
caused to be printed a Bill establishing a provision for 
teachers of the Christian Religion. At the succeeding 
session of the Legislature, Mr. Jefferson was absent 
from the country, but Mr. Madison, as the champion 
of Religious Liberty, supplied his place. A memorial 
and Remonstrance against the Bill making provision 
for the teachers of the Christian Religion was com- 
posed by Mr. Madison, and signed by multitudes of 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 27 

the citizens of the Commonwealth, and the Bill drafted 
by Mr. Jefierson, together with its preamble, was by 
the influence of his friend triumphantly carried against 
all opposition through the Legislature. 

The principle that religious opinions are altogether 
beyond the sphere of legislative control, is but one 
modification of a more extensive axiom, which includes 
the unhmited freedom of the press, of speech, and of 
the communication of thought in all its form.s. An 
authoritative provision by law for the support of 
teachers of the Christian Religion was prescribed by 
the third Article of the Bill of Rights in the Constitu- 
tion of this Commonwealth. An amendment recently 
adopted by the people has given their sanction to the 
opinions of Jefierson and Madison, and the substance 
of the Virginia Statute, for the establishment of Re- 
ligious Freedom, now forms a part of the Constitution 
of Massachusetts. That the freedom and communi- 
cation of thought is paramount to all legislative au- 
thority, is a sentiment becoming from day to day more 
prevalent throughout the civilized world, and which it 
is fervently to be hoped will henceforth remain invio- 
late by the legislative authorities not only of the 
Union but of all its confederated States. 

At the Session of 1785, a general revisal was made 
of the Statute Laws of Virginia, and the great burden 
of the task devolved upon Mr. Madison as chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee of the House. The ge- 
neral principle which pervaded this operation was the 
adaptation of the civil code of the Commonwealth, to 



28 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

its republican and unfettered independence as a Sove- 
reign State, and he carried it through with that same 
spirit of hberty and HberaUty which had dictated the 
Act for the estabHshment of Rehgious Freedom. The 
untiring industry, the searching and penetrating ap- 
pHcation, the imperturbable patience, the moderation 
and gentleness of disposition, which smoothed his way 
over the ruggedest and most thorny paths of life, ac- 
companied him through this transaction as through all 
the rest. While a member of the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia, he had contributed more than any other person 
to the adjustment of that vital interest of the Union, the 
disposal of the Public Lands. It was the collision of 
opinions and of interests relating to them which had 
delayed the conclusion of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion ; and the cession afterwards made of the North 
Western Territory was encumbered with conditions 
which further delayed its acceptance. By the influ- 
ence of Mr. Madison, the terms of the cession were 
so modified, that in conformity with them the ordi- 
nance for the government of the North Western Ter- 
ritory was finally adopted and established by Congress 
on the 13th of July, 1787, in the midst of the labors 
of the Convention at Philadelphia, which two months 
later presented to the People of the United States for 
their acceptance, that Constitution of Government, 
thenceforth the polar star of their Union. 

The experience of four years in the Congress of the 
Confederation, had convinced Mr. Madison that the 
Union could not be preserved by means of that insti- 



LIFE OF.JAiMES MADISOiV. 29 

tution. That its inherent infirmity was a deficiency 
of power in the federal head, and that an insurmount- 
able objection to the grant of further powers to Con- 
gress, always arose from the adverse prejudices and 
jealousy with which the demand of them was urged 
by that body itself. The difBculty of obtaining such 
grant of power, was aggravated by the consideration 
that it was to be invested in those by whom it was 
solicited, and was at the same time, and in the same 
degree, to abridge the power of those by whom it was 
to be granted. 

To avoid these obstacles it occurred to Mr. Madi- 
son that the agency of a distinct, delegated body, 
having" no invidious interest of its own, or of its mem- 
bers, npight be better adapted, deliberately to discuss 
the deficiencies of the federal compact, than the body 
itself by whom it was administered. The friends with 
whom he consulted in the Legislature of Virginia, 
concurred with him in these opinions, and the motion 
for the appointment of Commissioners to consider of 
the state of trade in the confederacy suggested by 
him, was made in the Legislature by his friend, Mr. 
Tyler, and carried by the weight of his opinions, and 

• 

the exertion of hi'fe influence, without opposition. 

This proposition was made and Commissioners were 
appointed by the Legislature of Virginia, on the 21st 
of January, 1786. The Governor of the Common- 
wealth, Edmund Randolph, was placed at the head of 
the delegation from the State. Mr. Madison and six 
others, men of the first character and influence in the 



30 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

State, were the other Commissioners. The meeting 
was held at Annapolis in September, and two com- 
missioners from New York, three from New Jersey, 
one from Pennsylvania, three from Delaware, and 
three from Virginia, constituted the whole number of 
this Convention. Five States only were represented, 
and among them, Pennsylvania by a single member. 
Four States, among whom was Maryland, the very 
State within which the Assembly was held, had not 
even appointed Commissioners, and the deputies from 
four others, among whom was our own beloved, 
native Commonwealth, suffering, even then, the awful 
calamity of a civil war, generated by the imbecility 
of the federal compact of union, did not even think it 
worth while to give their attendance. 

Yet even in that Convention of Annapolis, was the 
germ of a better order of things. The Commission^ 
ers elected John Dickinson, of Delaware, their chair- 
man, and after a session of three days, agreed upon a 
report, doubtless drafted by Mr. Madison, — addressed 
to the Legislatures by which they had been ap- 
pointed, and copies of which were transmitted to the 
other State Legislatures and to Congress. 

In this report they availed themselves of a sugges- 
tion derived from the powers which the Legislature 
of New Jersey had conferred upon their Commission- 
ers, and which contemplated a more enlarged revision 
of the Articles of Confederation ; and they urgently 
recommended that a second convention of delegates, 
to which all the States should be invited to appoint 



LIFE OF JAMES 3IADISO>f. 31 

Commissioners, should be held at Philadelphia, on the 
second Monday of the next May, for a general re- 
visal of the Constitution of the Federal Government, 
to render it adequate to the exigencies of the Union, 
and to report to Congress an act, which, when agreed 
to by them and confirmed by all the State Legisla- 
tures, should effectually provide for the same. In 
this report first occurred the use of the terms Consti- 
tution of the Federal Government as applied to the 
United States — and the sentiment was avowed that 
it should be made adequate to the exigencies of 
the Union. There was, however, yet no proposal 
for recurring to the great body of the people. 

The recommendation of Ihe report was repeated by 
Congress without direct reference to it, upon a reso- 
lution offered by the delegation of Massachusetts, 
founded upon a proviso in the Articles of Confede- 
ration and upon instructions from the State of New 
York to their delegates in Congress, and upon the 
suffo-estion of several States. The Convention as- 
sembled accordingly at Philadelphia, on the 9th of 
May, 1787. 

In most of the inspirations of genius, there is a 
simplicity, which, when they are familiarized to the 
general understanding of men by their effects, de- 
tracts from the opinion of their greatness. That 
the people qf the British Colonies, who, by their 
united counsels and energies had achieved their 
independence, should continue to be one people, 
and constitute a nation under the form of one or- 



32 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

ganized government, was an idea, in itself so simple, 
and addressed itself at once so forcibly to the reason, 
to the imagination, and to the benevolent feelings of 
all, that it can scarcely be supposed to have escaped 
the mind of any reflecting man from Maine to Geor- 
gia. It w^as the dictate of nature. But no sooner 
was it conceived than it was met by obstacles in- 
numerable to tjie general mass of mankind. They 
resulted from the existing social institutions, diver- 
sified among the parties to the projected national 
union, and seeming to render it impracticable. There 
were chartered rights for the maintenance of which 
the war of the revolution itself had first been waged. 
There were State Sovereignties, corporate feudal 
baronies, tenacious of their own Uberty, impatient of 
a superor, and jealous and disdainful of a parainount 
Sovereign, even in the whole democracy of the 
nation. There were collisions of boundary and of 
proprietary right westward in the soil — southward, in 
its cultivator. In fine the diversities of interests, 
of opinions, of manners, of habits, and even of ex- 
traction were so great, that the plan of constituting 
them one People, appears not to have occurred to 
any of the members of the Convention before they 
were assembled together. 

It was earnestly contested in the Convention itself. 
A large proportion of the members adhered to the 
principle of merely revising the articles of the Con- 
federation and of vesting the powers of Government 
in the confederate Congress. A proposition to that 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 33 

effect was made by Mr. Patterson of New Jersey, in 
a series of Resolutions, offered as a substitute for 
those of Mr. Randolph, immediately after the first 
discussions upon them. 

Nearly four months of anxious deUberation were 
employed by an assembly composed of the men who 
had been the most distinguished for their services 
civil and military, in conducting the country through 
the arduous struggles of the revolution — of jnen who 
_to_ the fire of genius added all the lights of ex- 
perience, and were stimulated by the impulses at once 
of ardent patriotism and of individual ambition, as- 
piring to that last and most arduous labor of con- 
stituting a nation destined in after times to present a 
model of Government for all the civilized nations 
of the earth. On the 17th of September, 1787, 
they reported. 

When the substance of their work was gone 
through, a Committee of five members, of whom Mr. 
Madison was one, was appointed to revise the style, 
and to arrange the Articles which had been agreed to 
by the Convention ; and this Committee was after- 
wards charged with the preparation of an address to 
the People of the United States. 

The address to the People was reported in the form 
of a letter from Washington, the President of the 
Convention, to the President of Congress; a Letter, 
admirable for the brevity and the force with which it 
presents the concentrated argument for the great 

change of their condition, which they called upon 

2* 



34 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

their fellow citizens to sanction. And this Letter, 
too-ether with an addition of two or three lines in the 
preamble, reported by the same Committee, did 
indeed comprise the most powerful appeal that could 
sway the heart of man, ever exhibited to the contem- 
plation and to the hopes of the human race. 

It did not escape the notice or the animadversion 
of the adversaries to this new national organization. 
They were at the time when the Constitution was 
promulgated, perhaps more numerous, and scarcely 
less respectable, than the adherents to the Consti- 
tution themselves. They had also, in the manage- 
ment of the discussion, almost all the popular side of 
the argument. 

Government in the first and most obvious aspect 
which it assumes, is a restraint upon human action, 
and as such, a restraint upon Liberty. The Constitu- 
tion of the United States was intended to be a 
government of great energy, and of course of ex- 
tensive restriction not only upon individual Liberty 
but upon the corporate action of States claiming to 
be Sovereign and Independent. The Convention had 
been aware that such restraints upon the People 
could be imposed by no earthly power other than 
the People themselves. They were aware that to 
induce the People to impose upon themselves such 
binding ligaments, motives not less cogent than those 
which form the basis of human association were 
indispensably necessary. That the first principle of 
politics must be indissolubly linked with the first 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 35 

principles of morals. They assumed therefore the 
existence of a People of the United States, and made 
them declare the Constitution to be their own work — 
speaking in the first person and saying We, the People 
of the United States, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America — and 
then the allegation of motives — to form a more 
perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. These are 
precisely the purposes for which it has pleased 
the Author of nature to make man a sociable being, 
and has blended mto one his happiness with that 
of his kind. 

So cogent were these motives and so forcibly were 
they compressed within the compass of this preamble, 
and in the Letter from President Washington to the 
President of Congress, that this body immediately 
and unanimously adopted the resolutions of the 
Convention, recommending that the projected Con- 
stitution should be transmitted to the Legislatures 
of the several States, to be by them submitted to 
Conventions of Delegates, to be chosen in each State 
by the People thereof, under the recommendation 
of its Legislature, for their assent and ratification. 
This unanimity of Congress is perhaps the strongest 
evidence ever manifested of the utter contempt into 
which the Articles of Confederation had fallen. The 
Congress which gave its unanimous sanction to the 



36 LIFE OP JAMES MADISON. 

measure was itself to be annihilated by the Consti- 
tution thus proposed. The Articles of Confederation 
were to be annihilated with it. Yet all the members 
of the Congress so ready to sanction its dissolution, 
had been elected by virtue of those Articles of Con- 
federation — to them the faith of all the States had 
been pledged, and they had expressly prescribed that 
no alteration of them should be adopted, but by the 
unanimous consent of the States. 

Thus far the proposal first made by Mr. Madison in 
the Legislature of Virginia, for the new political 
organization of the Union, had been completely suc- 
cessful. A People of the United States was formed. 
A Government, Legislative, Executive and Judicial 
was prepared for them, and by a daring though 
unavoidable anticipation, had been declared by its 
authors to be the Ordinance of that people themselves. 
It could be made so only by their adoption. But the 
greatest labor still remained to be performed. The 
.people throughout the Union were suffering, but a 
vast proportion of them were unaware of the cause 
of the evil that was preying upon their vitals. A 
still greater number were bewildered in darkness 
in search of a remedy, and there were not wanting 
those among the most ardent and zealous votaries of 
Freedom who, instead of adding to the powers of the 
general Congress, inefficient and imbecile as they 
were, inclined rather to redeem the confederacy from 
the forlorn condition to which it was reduced, by 
stripping the Congress of the pittance of power which 



'^ LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 37 

they possessed. In the indulgence of this spirit the 
Delegates from our own Commonwealth of INIassa- 
chusetts, by express instructions from their con- 
stituents, moved a Resolution that the election and 
acceptance of any person as a member of Congress 
should forever thereafter be deemed to disqualify such 
person from being elected by Congress to any office 
of trust or profit under the United States, for the 
term for which he should have been elected a member 
of that body. 

This morbid terror of patronage, this patriotic 
anxiety lest corruption should creep in by appoint- 
ments of members of Congress to office under the 
authorities of the Union, has often been reproduced 
down even to recent days under the present Go- 
vernment of the Union. Upon the theories or the 
practice of the present age, it is not the time or 
the place here to comment. But we cannot forbear 
to remark upon the solicitude of our venerable fore- 
fathers in this commonwealth, to remedy the imper- 
fection of the Articles of Confederation, the abuses of 
power, by the Congress of that day, and the avenues 
to corruption by the appointment of their members to 
office, when we consider that under the exclusions 
thus proposed, Washington could never have com- 
manded the armies of the United States : That 
neither Franklin, John Adams, Arthur Lee, John Jay, 
Henry Laurens, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, 
nor Robert R. Livingston could have served them as 
ministers abroad, or in any ministerial capacity at 



38 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

home — and when we reflect that two pubhc Ministers 
in Europe with their Secretaries, one Secretary of 
Foreign Affairs, one Secretary of War and three 
Commissioners of an empty Treasury, constituted the 
whole Hst of lucrative offices, civil and military, which 
they had to bestow. 

This incident may serve as an illustration of the 
difficulties which were yet to be encountered before 
the People of the United States could be prevailed 
upon to fix their seal of approbation upon a constitu- 
tion issued in their name, and which granted to a 
central Government, destined to rule over them all, 
powers of energy surpassing those of the most ab- 
solute monarchy, and forming, in the declared opinion 
of Jefferson, the strongest Government in the world. 

In a people inhabiting so great an extent of Ter- 
ritory, the difficulties to be surmounted before they 
could be persuaded to adopt this Constitution, were 
aggravated both by their dissensions and by their 
agreements — by the diversity of their interests and 
the community of their principles. The collision of 
interests strongly tended to alienate them from one 
another, and all were alike imbued with a deep aver- 
sion to any unnecessary grant of power. The Con- 
stitution was no sooner promulgated than it was as- 
sailed in the public journals from all quarters of the 
Union. 

The Convention was boldly and not unjustly 
charged with having transcended their powers, and 
the Congress of the Confederation, were censured in 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 39 

no measured terms for having even referred it to the 
State Legislatures, tobe submitted to the consideration 
of Conventions of the People. 

The Congress of the Confederation were in session 
at New^ York. Several of its members had been at 
the same time members of the Convention at Phila- 
delphia — and among them were James Madison and 
Alexander Hamilton. John Jay was not then a 
member of Congress nor had he been a member of 
the Convention — but he was the Secretary of Con- 
gress for foreign affairs and had held that office, from 
the time of his return from Europe, immediately after 
the conclusion of the definitive Treaty of Peace. 
He had therefore felt in its most painful form the im- 
becility of the Confederacy of which he was the 
minister, equally incapable of contracting engage- 
ments with foreign powers with the consciousness of 
the power to fulfil them, or of energy to hold foreign 
nations to the responsibility of performing the engage- 
ments contracted on their part with the United States. 
New York, then the central point of the confederacy, 
was the spot whence the most effective impression 
could be made by cool, dispassionate argument on the 
public mind ; and in the midst of the tempest of 
excitement throughout the country occasioned by the 
sudden and unexpected promulgation of a system so 
totally different from that of the Confederation, these 
three persons undertook in concert, by a series of 
popular Essays published in the daily journals of the 
time, to review the system of the Confederation, to -f 



40 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

demonstrate its inaptitude not only to all the functions 
of Government, but even to the preservation of the 
Union, and the necessity of an establishment at least 
as energetic as the proposed Constitution to the very 
existence of the United States as a Nation. 

The papers under the signature of Publius were 
addressed to the People of the State of New York, 
and the introductory Essay, written by Hamilton, 
declared the purpose to discuss all topics of interest 
connected with the adoption of the Constitution. 
The utility of the Union to the prosperity of the 
People : The insufficiency of the Confederation to 
preserve that Union : The necessity of an energetic 
Government : The conformity of the proposed Con- 
stitution to the true principles of a republican Go- 
vernment : Its analogy to the Constitution of the 
State of New York, and the additional security which 
its adoption would afford to the preservation of re- 
publican Government, to liberty and to property. 
The fulfilment of this purpose was accomplished in 
eighty-six numbers, frequently since republished, and 
now constituting a classical work in the EngUsh lan- 
guage, and a commentary upon the Constitution of 
the United States, of scarcely less authority than the 
Constitution itself. Written in separate numbers, and 
in very unequal proportions, it has not indeed that 
entire unity of design, or execution which might have 
been expected, had it been the production of a single 
mind. Nearly two-thirds of the papers were written 
by Mr. Hamilton. Nearly one third by Mr. Madison, 
and five numbers only by Mr. Jay. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 41 

In the distribution of the several subjects embraced 
in the plan of the work, the inducements to adopt the 
Constitution arising from the relations of the Union 
with foreign nations, were presented by Mr. Jay ; the 
defects of the Confederation in this respect were so 
obvious, and the evil consequences flowing from them, 
were so deeply and universally felt, that the task was 
of comparative ease, and brevity, with that of the oth- 
er two contributors. The defects of the Confedera- 
tion were indeed a copious theme for them all; and in 
the analysis of them, for the exposition of their bear- 
ing on the Legislation of the several States, the two 
principal writers treated the subject so as to interlace 
with each other. The 18th, 19th, and 20th numbers 
are the joint composition of both. In examining close- 
ly the points selected by these two great co-operators 
to a common cause, and their course of argument for 
its support, it is not difficult to perceive that diversity 
of genius and of character which afterwards separated 
them so widely from each other on questions of politi- 
cal interest, affecting the construction of the Constitu- 
tion which they so ably defended, and so strenuously 
urged their countrymen to adopt. The ninth and tenth 
numbers are devoted to the consideration of the utili- 
ty of the Union as a safeguard against domestic fac- 
tion and insurrection. They are rival dissertations up- 
on faction and its remedy. The propensity of all free 
governments to the convulsions of faction is admitted 
by both. The advantages of a confederated republic 
of extensive dimensions to control this admitted and 



42 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

unavoidable evil, are insisted on with equal energy in 
both — but the ninth number, vi^ritten by Hamilton, 
draws its principal illustrations from the history of the 
Grecian Republics ; while the tenth, written by Mad- 
ison, searches for the disease and for its remedies in 
the nature and the faculties of Man. There is in each 
of these numbers a disquisition of critical and some- 
what metaphysical refinement. That of Hamilton, 
upon a distinction, which he pronounces more subtle 
than accurate, between a confederacy and consolidation 
of the States. That of Madison upon the difference 
between a Democracy and a Republic, as differently af- 
fected by Faction — meaning by a Democracy, a Gov- 
ernment administered by the People themselves, and 
by a Repubhc, a Government by elisctive representa- 
tion. These distinctions in both cases have, in our ex- 
perience of the administration of the general Govern- 
ment, assumed occasional importance, and formed the 
elements of warm and obstinate party collisions. 

The fourteenth number of the Federalist, the next 
in the series written by Mr. Madison, is an elaborate 
answer to an objection which had been urged against 
the Constitution, drawn from the extent of country 
then comprised within the United States. From the 
deep anxiety pervading the whole of this paper, and 
a most eloquent and patlietic appeal to the spirit of 
union, with which it concludes, it is apparent that the 
objection itself was in the mind of the writer, of the 
most formidable and plausible character. He en- 
counters it with all the acuteness of his intellect and 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 43 

all the energy of his heart. His chief argument is a 
recurrence to his distinction hetween a Republic and 
a Democracy — and next to that by an accurate de- 
finition of the boundaries within which the United 
States were then comprised. The range between the 
31st and 45th degree of North Latitude, the Atlantic 
and the Mississippi — he contends that such an extent 
of territory, with the great improvements which were 
to be expected in the facilities of communication 
between its remotest extremes, was not incompatible 
with the existence of a confederated republic — or at 
least that from the vital interest of the people of the 
Union, and of the Liberties of mankind in the success 
of the American Revolution, it was worthy of an 
experiment yet untried in the annals of the world. 

The question to what extent of territory a confede- 
rate Republic, under one general government may be 
adopted, without breaking into fragments by its own 
weight, or settling into a monarchy, subversive of the 
liberties of the people, is yet of transcendant interest, 
and of fearful portent to the people of the Union. 
The Constitution of the United States was formed for 
a people inhabiting a territory confined to narrow 
bounds, compared with those which can scarcely be 
said to confine them now. The acquisition of Loui- 
siana and of Florida have more than doubled our 
domain ; and our settlements and our treaties have 
already removed our Western boundaries from the 
Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. A colonial es- 
tablishment of immense extent still hangs upon our 



44 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

Northern borders, and another confederate RepubHc, 
seems to offer the most alluring spoils to our ambition 
and avarice at the South. The idea of embracing in 
one confederated government the v^hole continent of 
North America, has, at this day, nothing chimerical in 
its conception, and long before a lapse of time equal 
to that which has past since the 14th number of the 
FederaUst v^^as written, may require the invincible 
spirit and the uncompromising energy of our re- 
volutionary struggle for its solution. 

The other papers of the FederaUst, written by Mr. 
Madison, are from the 37th to the 58th number 
inclusive. They relate to the difficulties which the 
Convention had experienced in the formation of a 
proper plan. To its conformity with Republican prin- 
ciples, with an apologetic defence of the body for 
transcending their powers. To a general view of the 
powers vested by the plan in the general government, 
and a comparative estimate of the reciprocal influence 
of the general and of the State governments Math 
each other. They contain a laborious investigation 
of the maxims which require a separation of the 
departments of power, and a discussion of the means 
for giving to it practical efficacy — and they close with 
an examination, critical and philosophical, of the or- 
ganization of the House of Representatives in the 
Constitution of the United States — with reference to 
the qualifications of the electors and the elected — to 
the term of service of the members ; to the ratio of 
representation ; to the total number of the body ; and 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 45 

to the expected su^psequent augmentation of the mem- 
bers — and here he met and refuted an objection to 
the plan founded upon its supposed tendency to ele- 
vate the few above the many. These were the topics 
discussed by James Madison, and in leaving to his 
illustrious associate the development of the other De- 
partments of the Senate, of the Executive, of the 
Judiciary, and the bearing of the whole system upon 
the militia, the commerce and revenues, the military 
and naval establishments, and to the public economy, 
it was doubtless because both from inclination and 
principle he preferred the consideration of those parts 
of the instrument which bore upon popular right, and 
the freedom of the citizens, to that of the aristocratic 
and monarchical elements of the whole fabric. 

The papers of the Federalist had a powerful, but 
limited inlluence upon the public mind. The Constitu- 
tion was successively submitted to the Conventions of 
the People, in each of the thirteen States, and in al- 
most every one of them was debated against opposi- 
tions of deep feeling, and strong party excitement. The 
authors of the Federalist were again called to buckle 
on their armour in defence of their plan. The Con- 
vention for the Commonwealth of Virginia, met in 
June, 1788, nine months after the Constitution had been 
promulgated. It had already been ratified by seven of 
the States, and New Hampshire, at an adjourned ses- 
sion of her Convention, adopted it while the Conven- 
tion of Virginia were in session. The assent of that 
State was therefore to complete the number of nine, 



\ 

46 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

which the Constitution itself had provided should be 
sufficient for undertaking its execution between the 
ratifying States. A deeper interest was then involv- 
ed in the decision of Virginia, than in that of any oth- 
er member of the Confederacy, and in no State had 
the opposition to the plan been so deep, so extensive, 
so formidable as there. Two of her citizens, second 
only to Washington by the weight of their characters, 
the splendor of their public services and the reputa- 
tion of their genius and talents, Patrick Henry, the 
first herald of the Revolution in the South, as James 
Otis had been at the North, and Thomas Jefierson, the 
author of the Declaration of Independence, and the 
most intimate and confidential friend of Madison him- 
self, disapproved the Constitution. Jefierson was in- 
deed at that time absent from the State and the coun- 
try, as the representative of the United States at the 
Court of France. His objections to the Constitution 
were less fervent and radical. Patrick Henry's oppo- 
sition was to the whole plan, and to its fundamental 
principle the change from a confederation of Indepen- 
dent States, to a complicated government, partly fed- 
eral, and partly national. He was a member of the 
Virginia Convention ; and there it was that Mr. Mad- 
ison was destined to meet and encounter, and over- 
come the all but irresistible power of his eloquence, 
and the inexhaustible resources of his gigantic mind. 

The debates in the Virginia Convention furnish an 
exposition of the principles of the Constitution, and a 
Commentary upon its provisions not inferior to the pa- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 47 

pers of the Federalist. Patrick Henry pursued his 
hostility to the system into all its details; ohjecting not 
only to the Preamble and the first Article, but to the 
Senate, to the President, to the Judicial Power, to 
the treaty making power, to the control given to Con- 
gress over the mihtia, and especially to the omission 
of a Bill of Rights — seconded and sustained with great 
ability by George Mason, who had been a member of 
the Convention which formed the Constitution, by 
James Monroe and William Grayson, there was not a 
controvertible point, real or imaginary, in the whole 
instrument which escaped their embittered opposition; 
while upon every point Mr. Madison was prepared to 
meet them, with cogent argument, with intent and anx- 
ious feeling, and with mild, conciliatory gentleness of 
temper, disarming the adversary by the very act of 
seeming to decline contention with him. Mr. Madi- 
son devoted himself particularly to the task of an- 
swering and replying to the objections of Patrick Hen- 
ry, following him step by step, and meeting him at ev- 
ery turn. His principal coadjutors were Governor 
Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, the President of the 
Convention, John Marshall, George Nicholas, and 
Henry Lee of Westmoreland. Never was there as- 
sembled in Virginia a body of men, of more surpas- 
sing talent, of bolder energy, or of purer integrity 
than in that Convention. The volume of their de- 
bates should be the pocket and the pillow companion 
of every youthful American aspiring to the honor of 
rendering important service to his country; and there, 



48 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

as he reads aud meditates, will he not fail to perceive 
the steady, unfaltering mind of James Madison, march- 
i-ng from victory to victory, over the dazzling but 
then beclouded genius and eloquence of Patrick Henry. 

The result was the unconditional ratification by a 
raajoritv of only eight votes, of the Constitution of 
the United States on the part of the Commonwealth 
of Virginia, together with resolutions, recommending 
sundry amendments to supply the omission of a Bill 
of Rights. The example for this had been first set by 
the Convention of Massachusetts, at the motion of 
John Hancock, and it was followed by several other 
of the State Conventions, and gave occasion to the 
first ten Articles, amendatory of the Constitution pre- 
pared by the first Congress of the United States and 
ratified by the competent number of the State Legis- 
latures, and which supply the place of a Bill of 
Rights. 

In the organization of the Government of the Uni- 
ted States, Washington, the leader of the armies of 
the revolution, the President of the Convention which 
had prepared the Constitution for the acceptance of 
the People — first in War, first in Peace, and first in 
the hearts of his Countrymen, was by their unanimous 
voice called to the first Presidency of the United 
States. For his assistance in the performance of the 
functions of the Executive power, after the institution 
by Congress of the chief Departments, he selected 
Alexander Hamilton for the olTice of Secretary of the 
Treasury, and Thomas Jefferson for that of Secreta- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 49 

ry of State. Mr. Madison was elected one of the 
members of the House of Representatives in the first 
Congress of the United States under the Constitution. 
The Treasury itself was to be organized. Public 
credit, prostrated by the impotence of the Confedera- 
tion, was to be restored, provision was to be made for 
the punctual payment of the public debt — taxes were 
to be levied — the manufactures, commerce and navi- 
gation of the Country were to be fostered and en- 
couraged ; and a system of conduct towards foreign 
powers was to be adopted and maintained. A Ju- 
diciary system was also to be instituted, accommodat- 
ed to the new and extraordinary character of the 
general Government. A permanent seat of Govern- 
ment was to be selected and subjected to the exclusive 
jurisdiction of Congress ; and the definite action of 
each of the Departments of the Government was to 
be settled and adjusted. In the councils of President 
Washington, divisions of opinion between Mr. Jeffer- 
son and Mr. Hamilton soon widened into coHisions of 
principle and produced mutual personal estrangement 
and irritation. In the formation of a general system 
of policy for the conduct of the Administration in 
National concerns at home and abroad, different 
views were taken by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Hamil- 
ton, which Washington labored much, but with little 
success, to conciliate. Hamilton, charged by suc- 
cessive calls from the House of Representatives, for 
reports of plans for the restoration of public credit ; 

upon the protection and encouragement of Manufac- 

3 



50 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

tures, and upon a National Mint and Bank, ti-ansrnit- 
ted upon each of those subjects reports of consum- 
mate ability, and proposed plans most of which were 
adopted by Congress almost without alteration. The 
Secretary of State during the same period made re- 
ports to Congress, not less celebrated, on the Fish- 
eries, on the system of commercial regulations most 
proper to be established, and upon weights and mea- 
sures. Negotiations with foreign powers, which the 
inefficiency of the confederation had left in a lament- 
able and languishing condition, humiliating to the 
national honor and reputation, were resumed and rein- 
stituted, and by long and complicated correspondences 
with the Governments of Great Bi'itain, Spain and 
France, the National character was in the first term 
of the administration of Washington redeemed and 
exhibited to the world with a splendor never surpass- 
ed, and which gave to the tone of our national inter- 
course with the Sovereigns of the earth a dignity, a 
firmness, a candor and moderation, which shamed the 
blustering and trickish diplomacy of Europe at that 
day and shed a beam of unfading glory upon the 
name of republican America. But the National Con- 
stitution had not only operated as if by enchantment 
a most auspicious revolution in the character and re- 
putation of the newly independent American People ; 
it had opened new avenues to honor and power and 
fame, and new prospects to individual ambition. 

No sooner was the new Government organized than 
the eyes, the expectations and the interests and pas- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISO.N. 51 

sions of men turned to the designation of the succes- 
sion to the Presidency, when the official term of 
Washington should be completed. His own intention 
was to retire at the expiration of the first four years 
allotted to the service. The candidates of the North 
and South, supported by the geographical sympathies 
of their respective friends, were already giving rise 
to the agency of political combinations. The North- 
ern candidate was not yet distinctly designated, but 
before the expiration of the first Congress, Mr. Jeffer- 
son was the only intended candidate of the South. 

The Protection of Manufactures, the restoration of 
public credit, the recovery of the securities of the 
public debt from a state of depreciation little short of 
total debasement, and the facilities of exchange and 
of circulation furnished by the establishment of a 
National Bank, were of far deeper interest to the 
commercial and Atlantic than to the plantation States. 
Mr. Jefferson's distrust and jealousy of the powers 
granted by the Constitution followed him into office, 
and were perhaps sharpened by the successful exer- 
cise of them, under the auspices of a rival statesman ; 
he insisted upon a rigid construction of all the grants 
of power — he denied the Constitutional power of 
Congress to establish Corporations, and especially a 
National Bank. The question was discussed in the 
Cabinet Council of Washington, and written opinions 
of Mr. Jefferson and of Edmund Randolph, then At- 
torney General, against the Constitutional power of 
Congress to establish a Bank, were given. With 



52 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

these opinions, Mr. Madison then concurred. Other 
questions of justice and expediency, connected with 
the funding system of Mr. Hamilton, gave rise to 
warm and acrimonious debates in Congress, and ming- 
ling with the sectional divisions of the Union, and 
with individual attachments to men, gave an impulse 
and direction to party spirit which has continued 
to this day, and however modified by changes of 
times, of circumstances, and of men, can never be 
wholly extinguished. Too happy should I be, if with 
a voice speaking from the last to the coming genera- 
tion of my country, I could effectually urge them to 
seek, in the temper and moderation of James Madi- 
son, that healing balm which assuages the malignity 
of the deepest seated political disease, redeems to life 
the rational mind, and restores to health the incorpo- 
rated union of our country, even from the brain fever 
of party spirit. 

To the sources of dissensions and the conflicts of 
opinion transmitted from the confederation, or genera- 
ted by the organization of the new Government, were 
soon added the confluent streams of the French revo- 
lution and its complication of European Wars. There 
were features in the French revolution closely resem- 
ling our own ; there were points of national interest 
in both countries well adapted to harmonize their rela- 
tions with each other, and a sentiment of gratitude 
rooted in the hearts of the American People, by the 
recent remembrance of the benefits derived from the 
alliance with France, and community of cause against 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 53 

Britain, engaged all our sympathies in favor of the 
People of France, subverting their own Monarchy ; 
and when her War, first kindled with Austria and 
Prussia, spread its flames to Great Britain, the partial- 
ities of resentment and hatred, deepening the tide and 
stimulating the current of more kindly and benevolent 
affections, became so ardent and impetuous that there 
was imminent danger of the country's being immedi- 
ately involved in the War on the side of France — a 
danger greatly aggravated by the guaranty to France 
of her Islands in the West Indies. The subject im- 
mediately became a cause of deliberation in the Ex- 
ecutive Cabinet, and discordant opinions again disclos- 
ed themselves between the Secretary of State, and 
the Secretary of the Treasury. 

On the 18th of April, 1793, President Washington 
submitted to his Cabinet thirteen questions with regard 
to the measures to be taken by him in consequence of 
the revolution which had overthrown the French 
monarchy; of the new organization of a republic in 
that country; of the appointment of a minister from 
that republic to the United States, and of the war, 
declared by the National Convention of France against 
Great Britain. The first of these questions was, 
whether a proclamation should issue to prevent inter- 
ferences of the citizens of the United States in the 
War] Whether the proclamation should or should 
not contain a declaration of neutrality t The second 
was whether a minister from the republic of France 
should be received. Upon these two questions the 



54 LIFE OF JA3IES MADISON. 

opinion of the cabinet was unanimous in the affirma- 
tive — that a Proclamation of neutrality should issue 
and that the minister from the French Republic should 
be received. But upon all the other questions, the 
opinions of the four heads of the Departments were 
equally divided. They were indeed questions of dif- 
ficulty and delicacy equal to their importance. No 
less than whether, after a revolution in France anni- 
hilating the Government with which the treaties of al- 
liance and of commerce had been contracted, the trea- 
ties themselves were to be considered binding as be- 
tween the nations; and particularly whether the stipu- 
lation of guaranty to France of her possessions in the 
West Indies, was binding upon the United States to 
the extent of imposing upon them the obligation of ta- 
kintj side with France in the War. As the members 
of the Cabinet disagreed in their opinions upon these 
questions, and as there was no immediate necessity for 
deciding them, the further consideration of them was 
postponed, and they were never afterwards resumed. 
While these discussions of the Cabinet of Washing- 
ton were held, the Minister Plenipotentiary from the 
French republic arrived in this country. He had been 
appointed by the National Convention of France 
wiiich had dethroned, and tried, and sentenced to 
death, and executed Louis the XVIth, abolished the 
Monarchy, and proclaimed a republic one and indi- 
visible, under the auspices of liberty, equality and fra- 
ternity, as thenceforth the Government of France. 
By all the rest of Europe, they were then considered 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 55 

as revolted subjects in rebellion against their Sover- 
eign; and were not recognized as constituting an in- 
dependent Government. 

General Hamilton and General Knox were of opin- 
ion that the Minister from France should be condition- 
ally received, with the reservation of the question, 
whether the United States were still bound to fulfill 
the stipulations of the Treaties. They inchned to the 
opinion that the Treaties themselves were annulled by 
the revolution of the Government in France — an opui- 
ion to which the example of the Revolutionary Gov- 
ernment had given plausibility by declaring some of 
the Treaties made by the abolished Monarchy, no lon- 
ger binding upon the nation. Mr. Hamilton thought 
also, that France had no just claim to the fulfilment of 
the stipulation of guaranty, because that stipulation, 
and the whole Treaty of Alliance in which it was con- 
tained were professedly, and on the face of them, on- 
ly defensive, while the War which the French Conven- 
tion had declared against Great Britain, was on the 
part of France offensive, the first declaration having 
been issued by her — that the United States were at 
all events absolved from the obligation of the guar- 
anty by their inabihty to perform it, and that under 
the Constitution of the United States the interpreta- 
tion of Treaties, and the obligations resulting from 
them, were within the competency of the Executive 
Department, at least concurrently with the Legisla- 
ture. It does not appear that these opinions were de- 
bated or contested in the Cabinet. By their unani- 



56 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

mous advice the Proclamation was issued, and Ed- 
mund Charles Genet was received as Minister Pleni 
potentiary of the French Republic. Thus the Execu- 
tive administration did assume and exercise the power 
of recognising a revolutionary foreign Government as 
a legitimate Sovereign with whom the ordinary diplo- 
matic relations were to be entertained. But the Pro- 
clamation contained no allusion whatever to the Trea- 
ties between the United States and France, nor of 
course to the Article of Guaranty or its obligations. 

Whatever doubts may have been entertained by a 
large portion of the people, of the right of the Exe- 
cutive to acknowledge a new and revolutionary go- 
vernment, not recognized by any other Sovereign 
State, or of the sound policy of receiving without 
waiting for the sanction of Congress, a minister from 
a republic which had commenced her career by put- 
ting to death the king whom she had dethroned, and 
which had rushed into war with almost all the rest of 
Europe, no manifestation of such doubts was publicly 
made. A current of popular favor sustained the 
French Revolution, at that stage of its progress, 
which nothing could resist, and far from indulging any 
question of the right of the President to recognize a 
new revolutionary government, by receiving from it 
the credentials which none but Sovereigns can grant, 
the American People would, at that moment, have 
scarcely endured an instant of hesitation on the part 
of the President, which should have delayed for an 
hour the reception of the minister from the Republic 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 57 

of France. But the Proclamation enjoining neu- 
trality upon the people of the United States, in- 
directly counteracted the torrent of partiality in favor 
of France, and was immediately assailed with intem- 
perate violence in many of the public journals. The 
right of the Executive to issue any Proclamation of 
neutrahty was fiercely and pertinaciously denied, as a 
usurpation of Legislative authority, and in that par- 
ticular case it was charged with forestalling and pre- 
maturely deciding the question whether the United 
States were bound, by the guaranty to France of her 
West India possessions in the treaty of alliance, to 
take side in the war with her against Great Britain — 
and with deciding it against France. 

Mr. Jefferson had advised the Proclamation; but 
he had not considered it as deciding the question of 
the guaranty. The government of the French Re- 
public had not claimed and never did claim the per- 
formance of the guaranty. But so strenuously was 
the risfht of the President to issue the Proclamation 
contested, that Mr. Hamilton, the first adviser of the 
measure, deemed it necessary to defend it inofficially 
before the public. This he did in seven successive 
papers under the signature of Pacificus. But in 
defending the Proclamation, he appears to consider it 
as necessarily involving the decision against the obli- 
gation of the guaranty, and maintain the right of the 
Executive so to decide. Mr. Madison, perhaps in 
some degree influenced by the opinions and feelings 

of his long cherished and venerated friend, Jefferson, 

3* 



58 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

was already harboring suspicions of a formal design 
on the part of Hamilton, and of the federal party ge- 
nerally, to convert the government of the United 
States into a monarchy like that of Great Britain, and 
thought he perceived in these papers of Paciticus the 
assertion of a prerogative in the President of the 
United States to engage the nation in war. He there- 
fore entered the lists against Mr. Hamilton in the 
public journals, and in five papers under the signature 
of Helvidius, scrutinized the doctrines of Pacificus 
with an acuteness of intellect never perhaps surpassed, 
and with a severity scarcely congenial to his natural 
disposition, and never on any other occasion indulged. 
Mr. Hamilton did not reply ; nor in any of his papers 
did he notice the animadversions of Helvidius. But 
all the Presidents of the United States have from that 
time exercised the right of yielding and withholding 
the recognition of governments consequent upon re- 
volutions, though the example of issuing a Proclama- 
tion of neutrality has never been repeated. The re- 
spective powers of the President and Congress of 
the United States, in the case of war with foreign 
powers, are yet undetermined. Perhaps they can 
never be defined. The Constitution expressly gives 
to Congress the power of declaring war, and that act 
can of course never be performed by the President 
alone. But war is often made without being declared. 
War is a state in which nations are placed not alone 
by their own acts, but by the acts of other nations. 
The declaration of war is in its nature a legislative 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISOV. 59 

act, but the conduct of war is and must be executive. 
However startled we may be at the idea that the 
Executive Chief Magistrate has the power of involv- 
ing the nation in war, even without consulting Con- 
gress, an experience of fifty years has proved that in 
numberless cases he has and must have exercised the 
power. In the case wiiich gave rise to this contro- 
versy, the recognition of the French Republic and 
the reception of her minister might iiave been regard- 
ed by the allied powers as acts of hostility to them, 
and they did actually interdict all neutral commerce 
with France. Defensive war must necessarily be 
among the duties of the Executive Chief Magistrate. 
The papers of PaciHcus and Helvidius are among the 
most ingenious and profound Commentaries on that 
most important part of the Constitution, the distribu- 
tion of the Legislative and Executive powers incident 
to war, and when considered as supplementary to the 
joint labors of Hamilton and Madison in the Federal- 
ist, thev possess a deep and monitory interest to the 
American philosophical Statesman. The Federalist 
exhibits the joint eftbrts of two powerful minds in 
promoting one great common object, the adoption of 
the Constitution of the United States. The papers of 
Pacificus and Helvidius present the same minds, in 
collision with each other, exerting all their energies in 
conflict upon the construction of the same instrument 
which they had so arduously labored to establish ; and 
it is remarkable that upon the points in the papers of 
Pacificus most keenly contested by his adversary, the 



60 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

most forcible of his arguments are pointed with quo- 
tations from the papers of the Federalist, written by- 
Mr. Hamilton. 

But whether in conjunction with or in opposition to 
each other, the co-operation or the encounter of intel- 
lects thus exalted and refined, controlled by that mo- 
deration and humanity, which have hitherto character- 
ized the history of our Union, cannot but ultimately 
terminate in spreading light and promoting peace 
among men. Happy, thrice happy the people, whose 
political oppositions and conflicts have no ultimate ap- 
peal but to their own reason; of whose party feuds 
the only conquests are of argument, and whose only 
triumphs are of the mind. In other ages and in other 
regions than our own, the question of the respective 
powers of the Legislature and of the Executive with 
reference to war, might itself have been debated in 
blood, and sent numberless victims to their account on 
the battle-field or the scaflfold. So it was in the san- 
guinary annals of the French Revolution. So it has 
been and yet is in the successive revolutions of our 
South American neighbors. May that merciful Being 
who has hitherto overruled all our diversities of opin- 
ion, tempered our antagonizing passions, and concilia- 
ted our conflicting interests, still preside in all our 
councils, and in the tempests of our civil commotions 
still ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm. 

It was indeed at one of the most turbulent and tem- 
pestuous periods of human history that the Constitu- 
tion of the United States first went into operation 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 61 

It was convulsed not only by the convulsions of the 
old world, but by tumultuary agitations of the most 
alarming character and tendency from within. Such 
were the dangers and the difficulties with which the 
Government of the United States, from the first mo- 
ment of its organization under Washington, was beset 
and surrounded, that they undoubtedly led him to the 
determination to withdraw from the charge and re- 
sponsibility of presiding over it, at as early a period 
as possible. It was with difficulty that he was pre- 
vailed upon to postj)one the execution of this design 
till the expiration of a second term of service; but so 
radically diffijrent were the opinions and the systems 
of policy of Washington's two principal advisers, es- 
pecially with reference to the external relations of the 
United States, that he was unable to retain beyond the 
limits of the first term their united assistance in his 
Cabinet. In the struggle to maintain the neutrality 
which he had proclaimed, and in the festering inflam- 
mation of interests and passions, gathering with the 
progress of the French revolution, he coincided more 
in judgment with the Secretary of the Treasury, than 
with the Secretary of State, and they successively 
retired from their offices, in which each of them had 
rendered the most important services, and contributed 
to raise the Country and its Government high in the 
estimation of the world, but unfortunately without be- 
ing able to harmonise, and finally even to co-operate 
with each other. 

Mr. Jefferson's retirement was first in order ; it 



62 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

was voluntarv, but under circumstances of dissatis- 
faction at the prevalence of the Councils of his rival 
in the Cabinet — and under irritated prepossessions of 
a deliberate design, in Hamilton, and of all the leading 
supporters of Washington's administration, to shape 
the Government of the United States into a monarchy 
like that of Great Britain. This exasperated feeling, 
nourished by the political controversy then blazing in 
all its fury in the war between France and the mo- 
narchies of Europe, gradually became the main spring 
of the opposition to Washington's administration ; an 
opposition which from that time looked to Jefferson as 
their leader and head. This opposiiion, fomented by 
the unprincipled injustice of both the belligerent 
European powers, and especially by the abandoned 
profligacy of the directorial Government of France, 
continued and increased until in the last year of 
Washington's administration, a majority if not of the 
people of the United States, at least of their represen 
tatives in Congress, were associated with it. Of that 
opposition, Mr. Jetferson was the favored candidate 
for the succession to the Presidency, and by the 
result of a severely contested election, was placed in 
the chair of the Senate as Vice President of the 
United States. This was the effect of a provision in 
the Constitution, which has since been altered by an 
amendment. It was one of the new experiments in 
Government, attempted by the Constitution, and had 
then been received with an unusual degree of favor, 
by an anticipated expectation that its operation would 



MFK OF JAME8 MAl)l?!0\. 6S 

be to mitigate and conciliate party spirit, by causing 
two persons to be voted for, to fill the same ofijce of 
President, and by consoling the unsucessful candidate 
and his friends with the second oHice in the Govern- 
ment of the Union. The test of experience soon dis- 
abused the fallacious foresight of a benevolent theory, 
and disclosed springs of human action adverse to the 
device of placing either a political antagonist or co- 
adjator of the Chief Magistrate at the head of the 
Senate, and as contingently his successor. 

The principles of the administration of Washington 
were pursued by his immediate successor. The op- 
position to them was encouraged and fortified by the 
position of their leader in the second seat of power; 
and the Directory of France, wallowing in corruption 
and venality, was preparing the way for their own 
destruction at home, and setting up to sale the peace 
of their country with other nations, and especially 
with the United States. By their violence and fraud 
they compelled the Congress to annul the existing 
Treaties between the United States and France, and 
without an absolute declaration of war, to authorize 
defensive hostilities. 

In the controversy with France during this period, 
the executive administration was sustained by a vast 
majority of the People of the Union, and the elections 
both of the People and of the State Legislatures, re- 
turned decided majorities in both houses of Congress 
of corresponding opinions and policy. A powerful 
and inveterate opposition to all the measures both of 



64 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON, 

Congress and of the administration was however con- 
stantly maintained with the countenance and co- 
operation of Mr. Jefferson, whose partiaUties in favor 
of France and the French revolution, though not 
extending to the justification of the secret Intrigues 
and open hostiUties of the Directory, still counteracted 
the operations of the American Government to resist 
and defeat them. 

The violence and pertinacity of the opposition pro- 
voked the ruling majority in Congress to the adoption 
of two measures which neither the exasperated spirit 
of the times, nor the deliberate judgment of after days 
could reconcile to the temper of the people. I allude 
to the two acts of Congress since generally known by 
the names of the Ahen and Sedition Laws. Of their 
merits or demerits this is not the time or the place to 
speak. They passed in Congress without vehement 
opposition, for Mr. Jefferson, then holding the office 
of Vice President of the United States, took no act- 
ing part against them as the presiding officer of the 
Senate, and Mr. Madison, at the close of the adminis- 
tration of Washington, had relinquished his seat in the 
House of Representatives of the Union. Devoted in 
friendship to the person, and in policy to the views of 
Mr. Jefferson, he participated with deference in his 
opinions to an extent which the deliberate convictions 
of his own judgment sometimes failed to confirm. The 
alien and sedition acts were intended to suppress the 
intrigues of foreign emissaries, employed by the pro- 
fligate Government of the French Directory, and who 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 65 

abused the freedom of the press by traducing the 
characters of the Administration and its friends, and 
by instigating the resistance of the people against the 
Government and the laws of the Union. 

Among the eminent qualities of Mr. Jefferson, was a 
keen constant, and profound faculty of observation with 
regard to the action and reaction of the popular opinion 
upon the measures of government. He perceived imme- 
diately the operation of the alien and sedition acts, and 
he availed himself of them with equal sagacity and ardor 
for the furtherance of his own views of public policy 
and of personal advancement. In opposition to the 
alien and sedition acts, he deemed it advisable to bring 
into action, so far as it was practicable, the power of 
the State Legislatures against the Government of the 
Union. In the pursuit of this system it was his good 
fortune to obtain the aid and co-operation of Mr. Madi- 
son and of other friends equally devoted personally to 
him, and concurring more fully in his sentiments, then 
members of the Legislature of Kentucky. Assuming 
as first principles, that by the Constitution of the 
United States Congress possessed no authority to re- 
strain in any manner the freedom of the press, not 
even in self-defence against the most incendiary de- 
famation, and that the principles of the English Com- 
mon Law wei'e of no force under the Government of 
the United States he drafted, with his own hand, reso- 
lutions which w^ere adopted by the Legislature of 
Kentucky, declaring that each State had the right to 
judge for itself as well of infractions of the common 



66 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

Constitution by the general government, as of the 
mode and measures of redress — that the alien and se- 
dition laws were, in their opinion, manifest and palpa- 
ble violations of the Constitution, and therefore null 
and void — and that a nullijication by the State Sove- 
reignties of all unauthorized acts done under color of 
the Constitution, is the rightful remedy for such in- 
fractions. 

The principles thus assumed, and particularly that 
of remedial nullification by state authority, have been 
more than once re-asserted by parties predominating 
in one or more of the confederated States, dissatisfied 
with particular acts of the general government. They 
have twice brought the Union itself to the verge of 
dissolution. To that result it must come, should it ev- 
er be the misfortune of the American People that they 
should obtain the support of a sufiicient portion of 
them to make them eflective by force. They never 
have yet been so supported. The alien and sedition 
acts were temporary Statutes, and expired by their 
own limitations. No attempt has been made to revive 
them, but in our most recent times, restrictions far 
more vigorous upon the freedom of the press, of 
speech and of personal liberty, than the alien and se- 
dition laws, have not only been deemed within the 
constitutional power of Congress, but even recom- 
mended by the Chief Magistrate of the Union, to en- 
counter the dangers and evils of incendiary publica- 
tions. 

The influence of Mr. Jefferson over the mind of 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 67 

Mr. Madison, was composed of all that genius, talent, 
experience, splendid public services, exalted reputa- 
tion, added to congenial tempers, undivided friendship 
and habitual sympathies of interest and of feeling 
could inspire. Among the numerous blessings which 
it was the rare good fortune of Mr. Jetlerson's life to 
enjoy, was that of the uninterrupted, disinterested, 
and ellicient friendship of Madison. But it was the 
friendshij) of a mind not inferior in capacity, and tem- 
pered with a calmer sensibility and a cooler judgment 
than his own. With regard to the measures of Wash- 
ington's administration, from the time when the Coun- 
cils of Hamilton accjuired the ascendancy over those 
of Jetlurson, tlie opinions of .Mr. Madison generally 
coincided with those of his friend. He had resisted, 
on Constitutional grounds, the establishment of a Na- 
tional Bank — he had proposed, and with all his ability 
had urged important modifications of the funding sys- 
tem. He had written and published the papers of Hcl- 
vidius, and he had originated measures of commercial 
regulation against Great Britain, instead of which 
Washington had j)referred to institute the pacific and 
friendly mission of Mr. Jay. He had disapproved of 
the treaty concluded by that eminent, profound and 
incorruptible statesman, a measure the most rancor- 
ously contested of any of those of Washington's ad- 
ministration, and upon which public opinion has re- 
mained divided to this day. Mr. Madison concurred 
entirely with Mr. Jefterson in the policy of neu- 
trality to the European wars, but with a strong lean- 



68 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

ing of favor to France and her revolution, which it 
was then impossible to hold without a leaning ap- 
proaching to hostility against Great Britain, her poli- 
cy and her Government. Mr. Madison therefore, at 
the earnest solicitation of Mr. Jefferson, introduced 
into the Legislature of Virginia the resolutions adop- 
ted on the 21st of December, 1798, declaring 1. That 
the Constitution of the United States was a compact, 
to which the States were parties, granting limited 
powers of Government. 2. That in case of a deliber- 
ate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers, 
not granted by the compact, the States had the right 
to, and were in duty bound to interpose, for arresting 
the progress of the evils and for maintaining with- 
in their respective limits the authorities, rights and 
liberties appertaining to them. 3, That the alien and 
sedition acts were palpable and alarming in fractions of 
the Constitution. 4. That the State of Virginia, hav- 
ing by its Convention which ratified the federal Con- 
stitution, expressly declared that among other essen- 
tial rights the liberty of conscience and the press can- 
not be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified by 
any authority of the United States, and from its ex- 
treme anxiety to guard these rights from every possi- 
ble attack of sophistry and ambition, having with the 
other States recommended an amendment for that 
purpose, which amendment was in due time annexed 
to the Constitution, it would mark a reproachful incon- 
sistency and criminal degeneracy if an indifference 
were now shown to the most palpable violation of one 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. GO 

of the rights thus declared and secured, and to the 
establishment of a precedent which might be fatal to 
the other. 5. That the State of Virginia declared the 
alien and sedition laws inconstitutional, — solennily 
appealed to the like dispositions in the other States, in 
confidence that they would concur with her in that 
declaration, and that the necessary and proper mea- 
sures would be taken by each, for co-operating with her, 
in maintaining unimpaired the authorities rights and 
liberties reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
People. G. That the Governor should be desired to 
transmit a copy of these resolutions to the Executive 
authority of each of the other States, with a request 
that they should -be communicated to the respective 
State Legislatures, and that a copy should be fur- 
nished to each of the Senators and Representatives 
of Virginia in Congress. 

The resolutions did but in part carry into effect the 
principles and purposes of Mr. JelTerson. His original 
intention was that the alien and sedition acts should 
be declared by the State Legislatures, null and void — 
and that with the declaration that nullification by them 
was the rightful remedy for such usurpations of power 
by the federal Government, committees of correspond- 
ence and co-operation should be appointed by the 
Legislatures of the States concurring in the resolu- 
tions, for consultation with regard to further measures. 
Before the adoption of the Virginia resolutions, the 
Legislature of Kentucky had adopted others drafted 
by Mr. Jefferson himself and introduced by two of 



70 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

his friends in that body. In those resolutions, the 
doctrines of nullification by the State Legislatures of 
acts of Congress, deemed by them unconstitutional, 
was first explicitly and unequivocally asserted. But 
even in Kentucky the Legislature was not quite pre- 
pared for consultation upon further measures of co- 
operation by committees of correspondence. 

The Virginia Resolutions were transmitted to the 
other States, with an address to the people in support 
of them, written by Mr. Madison. They were 
stronly disapproved by resolutions of all the Legisla- 
tures of the New England States, and by those of 
New York and Delaware. Thev were not, nor were 
those of the Legislature of Kentucky concurred in by 
any other State Legislature of the Union, but they 
contributed greatly to increase the unpopularity of the 
measures which they denounced, and sharpened the 
edge of every weapon wielded against the adminis- 
tration of the time. 

At the succeeding sessions of the Legislatures of 
Kentucky and of Virginia, they took into considera- 
tion the answers of the Legislatures of other States 
to their resolutions of 1798. The reply of Kentucky 
was in the form of a resolution re-assertincf the ria:ht 
of the separate States to judge of infractions, by the 
Government of the Union, of the Constitution of the 
United States, and expressly affirming that a nidhjica- 
tion by the State Sovereignties of all unauthorized 
acts done under color of that instrument, was the 
rightful remedy ; and complaining of the doctrines 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 71 

and principles attempted to be maintained in all the 
answers, that of Virginia only excepted. 

In the Legislature of Virginia, a long, most able 
and elaborate re})ort was written by Mr. Madison, in 
replv to the answers received from the other States, 
and concluded with the following resolution : 

" That the General Assembly, having carefully and 
respectfully attended to the proceedings of a number 
of the States, in answer to the resolutions of Decem- 
ber 21, 1798, and having accurately and fully re- 
examined and re-considered the latter, find it to be 
their indispensable duty to adhere to the same, as 
founded in truth, as consonant with the Constitution, 
and as conducive to its preservation ; and more espe- 
cially to be their duty to renew as they do hereby 
renew their protest against the alien and sedition acts, 
as palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitu- 
tion." 

The report and resolution were adopted by the Le- 
gislature in February, 1800. The alien law expired 
by its own limitation, on the 25th of June of that 
year, and the sedition act on the 4th of March, 1801. 

The proceedings of the Legislatures of Kentucky 
and Virginia relating to the alien and sedition acts, 
gave to them an importance far beyond that which 
naturally belonged to them. The acts themselves, 
and the resolutions of the Legislatures concerning 
them, may now be considered merely as adversary 
'party measures. 

The agency of Mr. Jefferson in originating the 



72 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

measures of both the State Legislatures was at the 
time profoundly secret. It has been made known only 
since his decease, but in estimating the weight of the 
objections against the two laws on sound principles as 
well of morals as of politics, the fact as well as the 
manner of that agency are observable. The situation 
which he then held, and that to which he ascended by 
its operation, are considerations not to be overlooked 
in fixing the deliberate judgment of posterity upon 
the whole transaction. Mr. Madison's motives for 
the part which he acted in the drama, are not hable 
to the same scrutiny ; nor did his public station at the 
time, nor the principles which he asserted in the man- 
agement of the controversy, nor the measures which 
he proposed, recommended and accomplished, subject 
his posthumous reputation and character to the same 
animadversions. Standing here as the sincere and 
faithful organ of the sentiments of my fellow citizens 
to honor a great and illustrious benefactor of his coun- 
try, it would be as foreign from the honest and delibe- 
rate judgment of my soul as from the sense of my 
duties on this occasion to profess my assent to the 
reasoning of his report, or my acquiescence in the ap- 
plication of its unquestionable principles to the two 
acts of Congressional legislation which it arraigns. 
That because the States of this Union, as well as their 
people, are parties to the Constitutional compact of the 
federal Government, therefore the State Legislatures 
have the right to judge of infractions of the Constitu- 
t"on by the organized Government of the whole, and 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 73 

to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional, is as ab- 
horrent to the conclusions of my judgment as to the 
feelings of my heart — but holding the converse of 
those propositions with a conviction as firm as an 
article of religious faith, I too clearly see to admit of 
denial, that minds of the highest order of intellect, 
and hearts of the purest integrity of purpose, have 
been brought to different conclusions. If Jefferson 
and Madison deemed the alien and sedition acts plain 
and palpable infractions of the Constitution, Washing- 
ton and Patrick Henry held them to be good and 
wholesome laws. These opinions were perhaps all 
formed under excitements and prepossessions which 
detract from the weight of the highest authority. 
The alien act was passed under feelings of honest in- 
dignation at the audacity with which foreign emis- 
saries were practising within the bosom of the country 
upon the passions of the people against their own Go- 
vernment. The sedition act was intended as a curb 
upon the publication of malicious and incendiary slan- 
der upon the President or the two Houses of Con- 
gress, or either of them. But they were restrictive 
upon the personal liberty of foreign emissaries, and 
upon the political licentiousness of the press. The 
alien act produced its effect by its mere enactment, in 
the departure from the country of the most obnoxious 
foreigners, and the power conferred by it upon the 
President was never exercised. The prosecutions 
under the sedition act did but aggravate the evil which 
they were intended to repress. Without believing 



74 LIFE OF JAMES MAniSON. 

that either of those laws was an infraction of the 
Constitution, it naay be admitted without disparage- 
ment to the authority of Washington and Henry, or 
of the Congress which passed the acts, that they were 
not good and wholesome laws, inasmuch as they were 
, not suited to the temper of the people. 

Emergencies may arise in which the authority of 
Congress will be invoked by the portion of the people 
most aggrieved by the alien and sedition acts, for arbi- 
trary expulsion of foreign incendiaries, and for the 
suppression of incendiary publications at home, by 
measures far more rigorous and more palpably viola- 
tive of the Constitution than tiiose laws, and if the 
temper of that portion of the people which approved 
them, shall be, as it has recently been, and perhaps 
still is, attuned to endure the experiment, the Consti- 
tutional authority of Congress will be found amply 
sufficient for the enactment of statutes far more sharp 
and biting than they were. The question with regard 
to the constitutionality of those laws is however far 
different from that of the manner in which they were 
resisted. In that originated the doctrine of nullification. 

In this respect there appears to have been a very 
materia] difference between the opinions and purposes 
of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison. Concurring in 
the doctrine that the separate States have the right to 
interpose, in case of palpable infractions of the Consti- 
tution by the Government of the United States, and 
that the alien and sedition acts presented a case of 
such infraction, Mr. Jefferson considered them as ab- 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 75 

solutely null and void, and thought the State Legisla- 
tures competent not only to declare, but to make them 
so ; to resist their execution within their respective 
borders by physical force ; and to secede and separate 
from the Union, rather than submit to them, if attempt- 
ed to be carried into execution by force. To these doc- 
trines Mr. Madison did not subscribe. He disclaimed 
them in the most explicit manner, at a very late period 
of his life, and in his last and most matured sentiments 
with regard to those laws, he considered them rather 
as unadvised acts, passed in contravention to the 
opinions and feelings of the community, than as more 
unconstitutional than many other acts of Congress 
which have generally accorded with the views of a 
majority of the States and of the people. 

Upon the change of the administration by the elec- 
tion of Mr. Jetierson as President of the United States 
in 1801, a new career was opened to the talents and 
wisdom of his friend, who thenceforth became his first 
assistant and his most confidential adviser in the ad- 
ministration of the Government. 

That administration was destined to pass through 
ordeals scarcely less severe than those which had 
tested tlie efiiciency of the Constitution of the United 
States under the Presidency of his predecessors. 

By a singular concurrence of good fortune, Mr. 
Jeflferson was immediately after his accession relieved 
from the pressure of all the important difficulties and 
menacing dangers which had so heavily weighed upon 
the administration of both his predecessors. The dif- 



76 LIFE OF JA31ES MADISON, 

ferences between them both and the United States, 
which had during the twelve years of those adminis- 
trations kept the nation without intermission in the 
most imminent dangers of war, first with Great Brit- 
ain, and afterwards with France, had all been ad- 
justed by Treaties with both those nations. The re- 
volutionary violence of Republican France had al- 
ready subsided into a military Government. Still 
retaining the name of a republic, but rapidly ripening 
into a hereditary monarchy. The wars in Europe 
themselves were about to cease, for a short period 
indeed, and soon to blaze out with renewed and ag- 
gravated fury, but upon questions of mere conquest 
and aggrandizement between the belligerent powers. 
In the same year with the inauguration of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, the peace of Amiens had replaced France at the 
head of continental Europe, leaving G.reat Britain in 
the uncontested, if not undisputed dominion of the sea. 
The expenditures for the army and navy, already 
much reduced by the reduction of the former to a 
small peace establishment, admitted of further re- 
trenchments, and the very questionable policy of re- 
ducing also the latter, allowed a correspondmg reduc- 
tion of taxation, which gave the new administration 
the popular attraction of professed retrenchment and 
reform. For the naval armaments which the sharp 
collisions with both the belligerent nations had ren- 
dered necessary, although they had nobly sustained 
the glory of valor and skill upon the ocean acquired 
during the revolutionary war, and were destined to 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 77 

deeds of yet more exalted fame in the administration 
of his successor, had necessarily occasioned heavy 
expense — had been among the measures most severe- 
ly censured by Mr, Jefferson, and were among his 
most favorite objects of reform. Reformed they ac- 
cordingly were, and dry-docks and gun-boats became 
for a time the cheap defences of the nation. The 
gallant spirit of the navy w^as itself discountenanced 
and discouraged, till a Tripolitan Cruiser, captured af- 
ter a desperate battle, was not even taken into posses- 
sion, upon a scruple of the victor's instructions wheth- 
er self-defence could give a right to the fruits of vic- 
tory, without a declaration of war by Congress. 

The reduction of the navy, while it lasted, deeply 
injurious both to the honor and the interests of the 
nation, gave however to the incipient administration 
the credit of reduced expenditures, retrenchment and 
reform: such was its first effect at home. Abroad its 
first fruit was the contempt of the Barbary powers 
— insult, outrage and war — a new armament, and new 
taxation under the denomination of a Mediterranean 
fund, took the place of retrenchment ; and w4ien the 
smothered flames of war burst forth anew between 
France and Britain, the impressment of our seamen. 
Orders in Council, Paper Blockades, Decrees of Ber- 
lin, of Milan, of Rambouillet, and finally the murder 
of our mariners within our own waters, and the wan- 
ton and savage attack upon the frigate Chesapeake, 
proved in the degradation of our national reputation, 
and in the cowering of that undaunted spirit which 



78 I.IFK OF JAMES MADISON. 

rides upon the mountain wave, the short-sightedness 
of that pohcy, which trusted to gun-boats and dry- 
docks for the defence of the country upon the world 
of waters, and which had crippled the naval arm, and 
tamed the gallant spirit of the Union, for the glory of 
retrenchment and reform. 

On the other hand, the renewal of the European 
war, and the partialities of Mr. Jefferson in favor of 
France, enabled him to accomplish an object which 
greatly enlarged the territories of the Union — which 
removed a most formidable source of future dissen- 
sions with France — which exceedingly strengthened 
the relative influence and power of the State and 
section of the Union, to which he himself belonged, 
and which in its consequences changed the character 
of the Confederacy itself. This operation, by far the 
greatest that has been accomplished by any adminis- 
tration under the Constitution was consummated at 
the price of fifteen millions of dollars in money, and 
of a dii'ect, unqualified, admitted violation of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. According to the theo- 
ry of Mr. Jefferson, as applied by him to the alien and 
sedition acts, it was absolutelv null and void. It might 
have been nullified by the Legislature of any one 
State in the Union, and if persisted in, would have 
warranted and justified a combination of States, and 
their secession from the confederacy in resistance 
against it. 

That an amendment to the Constitution was neces- 
sary to legalize the annexation of Louisiana to the 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 79 

Union, was the opinion both of Mr. Jefl'erson and of 
Mr. Madison. They finally acquiesced however in 
the latitudinous construction of that instrument, which 
holds the treaty-making powers, together with an act 
of Congress, sufficient for this operation. It was ac- 
cordingly thus consummated by Mr. Jetferson, and has 
been sanctioned by the acquiescence of the people. 
Upwards of thirty years have passed away since this 
great change was eflected. By a subsequent Treaty 
with Spain, by virtue of the same powers and authori- 
ty, the Floridas have been annexed also to the Union, 
and the boundaries of the United States have been 
extended from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. 
There is now nothing in the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States to inhibit their extension to the two polar 
circles from the Straits of Hudson to the Straits of 
Magellan. Whether this very capacity of enlarge- 
ment of territory and multiplication of States by the 
constructive power of Congress, without check or 
control either by the States or by their people, will 
not finally terminate in the dissolution of the Union 
itself, time alone can determine. The cn.'dit of the 
acquisition of Louisiana, whether to be considered as 
a source of good or of evil, is perhaps due to Robert 
R. Livingston more than to any other man, but the 
merit of its accomplishment must ever remain as the 
great and imperishable memorial of the administration 
of Jefferson. 

In the interval between the Peace of Amiens, and 
the renewal of the wars of France with the rest of 



80 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

Europe, the grasping spirit and gigantic genius of 
Napoleon had been revolving projects of personal ag- 
grandizement and of national ambition of which this 
western hemisphere was to be the scene. He had 
extorted from the languishing and nerveless dynasty 
of the Bourbons in Spain the retrocession of the pro- 
vince of Louisiana, with a description of boundary 
sufficiently indefinite, to raise questions of limits 
whenever it might suit his purpose to settle them by 
the intimation of his will. Here it had been his pur- 
pose to establish a military Colony, with the Mexican 
dominions of Spain on one side, and the United States 
of America and the continental colonies of Great Bri- 
tain on the other, in the centre of the western hemis- 
phere, the stand for a lever to wield at his pleasure the 
destinies of the world. This plan was discomposed 
by a petty squabble with Great Britain about the 
Island of Malta; and a project wilder if possible than 
his miUtary Colony of Louisiana — namely the Caesa- 
rian operation of conquering the British Islands them- 
selves by direct invasion. The transfer of Louisiana 
had been stipulated by a secret treaty, but possession 
had not been taken. Mr. Livingston was then the 
Minister of the United States in France. He had 
been made acquainted with the existence of the Trea- 
ty of retrocession of Louisiana, and by a memorial of 
great ability, had expostulated against it, urging as 
scarcely less essential to the interests of France than 
of the United States, that the Province should be ce- 
ded to them. This memorial when presented had 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISOxN. 81 

met with little attention from Napoleon. His milita- 
ry Colony of twenty thousand men was on the point 
of embarkation, under the command of one of his 
Lieutenants, destined himself in after time to wear the 
crown of Gustavus-Adolphus, w^hen the Iron Crown 
of Lombardy and the imperial crown of France, after 
encircling the brows of Napoleon, should have melted 
before the leaden sceptre of the restored Bourbons. 
Napoleon was to rise to the summit of human great- 
ness, and to fall from it over another precipice, than 
that to which he was approaching with his military 
colony of Louisiana. When he determined to renew 
the war with England, still mistress of the seas, he 
could no longer risk the fortunes of his soldiers in a 
passage across the Atlantic, and unable as he was to 
cope with the thunders of Britain upon the ocean, he 
saw that Louisiana itself, if he should take possession 
of the Province, must inevitably fall an easy prey 
to the enemy with whom he was to contend. He 
therefore abandoned his project of conquests in Ameri- 
ca, and determined at once to sell his Colony of Lou- 
isiana to the United States. 

Never in the fortunes of mankind was there a more 
sudden, complete and propitious turn in the tide of 
events than this change in the purposes of Napoleon 
proved to the administration of Mr. Jefferson. The 
wrangling altercation wdth Spain for the navigation of 
the Mississippi, had been adjusted during the adminis- 
tration of Washington, by a treaty, which had con- 
ceded to them the right, and stipulated to make its 

4* 



82 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

enjoyment effective, of deposit at New Orleans. In 
repurchasing from Spain the Colony of Louisiana, 
Napoleon, to disencumber himself from the burden of 
this stipulation, and to hold in his hand a rod over the 
western section of this Union, had compelled the das- 
tardly and imbecile monarch of Spain to commit an 
act of perfidy, by withdrawing from the people of the 
United States this stipulated right of deposit before 
dehvering the possession of the Colony to France. 
The great artery of the commerce of the Union was 
thus choaked in its circulation. The sentiment of sur- 
prise, of alarm, of indignation, was instantaneous and 
universal among the people. The hardy and enter- 
prising settlers of the western country could h.axlly 
be restrained from pouring down the swelling floods 
of their population, to take possession of New Orleans 
itself, by the immediate exercise of the rights of war. 
A war with Spain must have been immediately fol- 
lowed by a war with France, which, however just 
the cause of the United States would have been, must 
necessarily give a direction to public affairs adverse to 
the whole system of Mr. Jefferson's policy, and in all 
probabihty prove fatal to the success of his adminis- 
tration. Instigations to immediate war, were at once 
attempted in Congress, and were strongly counte- 
nanced by the excited temper of the people. Mr. 
Jefferson instituted an extraordinary mission both to 
France and Spain, to remonstrate against the with- 
drawal of the right of deposit, and to propose anew 
the purchase of the Island of New Orleans. By one 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 83 

of those coincidences in the course of human events. 



too rare to be numbered among the ordinary dispen- 
sations of Providence ; too common to be account- 
able upon the doctrine of unregulated chance, v^hen 
Mr. Jefferson's minister arrived at the seat of his first 
destination, his charge, and much more than his 
charge, was already performed. Napoleon had re- 
solved to sell to the United States the whole of Louis- 
iana, and Great Britain, under the influence of fears 
and jealousies of him, even deeper than those with 
which she pined at every prosperity of her alienated 
child, had declared her acquiescence in the transfer. 
The American negociators without hesitation trans- 
cended their powers, to obtain all Louisiana instead of 
Florida. Claims of indemnity to the citizens of the 
United States, for wrongs suffered from the preceding 
revolutionary Governments of France, were provided 
for by a separate Convention, and paid for with part 
of the purchase money for the Province, and the 
whole remnant of the fifteen millions was, in the 
midst of a raging wai', with the knowledge and assent 
of the British Government, furnished by English 
Bankers to be expended in preparations for the con- 
quest of England by invasion. 

It will be no detraction from the merits or services 
of Mr. Jefferson, or of his Secretary of State, to 
acknowledge that in all this transaction Fortune 
claims to herself the lion's share. To seize and turn 
to profit the precise instant of the turning tide, is 
itself among the eminent properties of a Statesman, 



84 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

and if requiring less elevated virtue than the firmness 
and prudence that withstand adversity, or the mode- 
ration which adorns and dignifies prosperity, it is not 
less essential to the character of an accompHshed 
ruler of men. 

But Napoleon had transferred the acquisition which 
he had wrenched from the nerveless hand of Spain 
with its indefinite and equivocal boundary. He had 
also violated his faith, pledged to Spain when he took 
back the Province, once the Colony of France, that 
he would never cede it to the United States. Spain 
immediately complained, remonstrated, protested 
against the cession, the just reward of her own per- 
fidy, in withdrawing the stipulated right of deposit at 
New Orleans ; and although Napoleon soon silenced 
her complaints, and constrained her to withdraw her 
protest against the cession, yet on the question of 
boundary, he had contracted his province of Louisiana 
almost within the dimensions of the Island of New 
Orleans. Negotiations with Spain and France, soon 
complicated with the sharper collisions of neutral and 
belligerent rights, and with the war of extermination 
between France and Britain, called for all the talents 
and all the energies of the President, and of his friend 
and Minister in the Department of State. The dis- 
cussions respecting the boundaries of Louisiana were 
soon brought to a close. Spain contested the claims 
of the United States, both east and west of the Mis- 
sissippi. The United States, after an ineffectual at- 
tempt to obtain the Floridas from Spain, agreed to 



LIFE OF JAMES -MADISON. 85 

leave both the questions of boundary to the decision 
of France, and Napoleon instantly decided it on both 
sides of the Mississippi against them. 

In the first wars of the French revolution Great Brit- 
ain had begun by straining the claim of belligerent, as 
against neutral rights, beyond all the theories of in- 
ternational jurisprudence, and even beyond her own 
ordinary practice. There is in all war a conflict be- 
tween the belligerent and the neutral right, which can 
in its nature be settled only by convention. And in 
addition to all the ordinary asperities of dissension 
between the nation at war and the nation at peace, 
she had asserted a right of man-stealing from the ves- 
sels of the United States. The claim of right was to 
take by force all sea-faring men, her own subjects, 
wherever they were found by her naval officers, to 
serve their king in his wars. And under color of this 
tyrant's right, her naval officers, down to the most 
beardless Midshipman, actually took from the Ameri- 
can merchant vessels which they visited, any seaman 
whom they chose to take for a British subject. After 
the Treaty of November, 1794, she had relaxed all 
her pretensions against the neutral rights, and had 
gradually abandoned the practice of impressment till 
she was on the point of renouncing it by a formal 
Treaty stipulation. At the renewal of the war, after 
the Peace of Amiens, it was at first urged with much 
respect for the rights of neutrality, but the practice 
ol impressment was soon renewed with aggravated 
severity, and the commerce of neutral -nations with 



86 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

the Colonies of the adverse belligerent was wholly 
interdicted on the pretence of justification, because it 
had been forbidden by the enemy herself in the time 
of peace. This pretension had been first raised by 
Great Britain in the seven years' war, but she had 
been overawed by the armed neutrality from main- 
taining it in the war of the American revolution. In 
the midst of this war with Napoleon, she suddenly 
reasserted the principle, and by a secret order in 
Council, swept the ocean of nearly the whole mass of 
neutral commerce. Her war with France spread 
itself all over Europe, successively involving Spain, 
Italy, the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Den- 
mark and Sweden. Not a single neutral power re- 
mained in Europe — and Great Britain, after annihi- 
lating at Trafalgar the united naval power of France 
and Spain, ruhng thenceforth with undisputed do- 
minion upon the ocean, conceived the project of en- 
grossing even the commerce with her enemy by in- 
tercepting all neutral navigation. These measures 
were met by corresponding acts of violence, and 
sophistical principles of National Law, promulgated 
by Napoleon, rising to the summit of his greatness, 
and preparing his dowafall by the abuse of his eleva- 
tion. Through this fiery ordeal the administration of 
Mr. Jefterson was to pass, and the severest of its tests 
were to be applied to Mr. Madison. His correspond- 
ence with the ministers of Great Britain, France and 
Spain, and with the ministers of the United States to 
those nations during the remainder of Mr. Jefferson's 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 87 

administration, constitute the most important and most 
valuable materials of its history. His examination of 
the British doctrines relating to neutral trade, will 
hereafter be considered a standard Treatise on the 
Law of Nations ; not inferior to the works of any 
writer upon those subjects since the days of Grotius, 
and every way worthy of the author of Publius and 
Helvidius. There is indeed, in all the diplomatic 
papers of American Statesmen, justly celebrated as 
they have been, nothing superior to this Dissertation, 
which was not strictly otiicial. It was composed 
amidst the duties of the Department of State, never 
more arduous than at that lime — in the summer of 
1806. It was published inonicially, and a copy of it 
was laid on the table of each member of Congress at 
the commencement of the session in December, 1806. 
The controversies of conflicting neutral and bellige- 
rent rights, continued through the whole of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's administration, during the latter part of which 
they were verging rapidly to war. He had carried 
the policy of peace perhaps to an extreme. His sys- 
tem of defence by commercial restrictions, dry-docks, 
gun-boats and embargoes, was stretched to its last 
hair's breadth of endurance. Far be it from me, my 
fellow citizens, to speak of this system or of its mo- 
tives with disrespect. If there be a duty, binding in 
chains more adamantine than all the rest the con- 
science of a Chief Magistrate of this Union, it is that 
of preserving peace with all mankind — peace with the 
other nations of the earth — peace among the several 



88 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

States of this Union — peace in the hearts and temper 
of our own people. Yet must a President of the 
United States never cease to feel that his charge is to 
maintain the rights, the interests and the honor no less 
than the peace of his country — nor will he be permit- 
ted to forget that peace must be the offspi-ing of two 
concurring wills. That to seek peace is not always to 
ensure it. He must remember too, that a reliance 
upon the operation of measures, from their effect on 
the interests, however clear and unequivocal of na- 
tions, cannot be safe against a counter current of their 
passions. That nations, like individuals, sacrifice their 
peace to their pride, to their hatred, to their envy, to 
their jealousy, and even to the craft, which the cun- 
ning of hackneyed politicians not unfrequently mis- 
takes for policy. That nations, like individuals, have 
sometimes the misfortune of losing their senses, and 
that lunatic communities, which cannot be confined in 
hospitals, must be resisted in arms, as a single maniac 
is sometimes restored to reason by the scourge. That 
national madness is infectious, and that a paroxysm of 
it in one people, especially when generated by the 
Furies that preside over war, produces a counter 
paroxysm in their adverse party. Such is the melan- 
choly condition as yet of associated man. And while 
in the wise but mysterious dispensations of an over- 
ruling Providence, man shall so continue, the peace of 
every nation must depend not alone upon its own will, 
but upon that concurrently with the will of all others. 
And such was the condition of the two mightiest 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON". 89 

nations of ihc earth during the administration of Mr. 
Jetrerson. Frantic, in fits of mutual hatred, envy and 
jealousy against each other; meditating mutual inva- 
sion and conquest, and forcing the other nations of the 
four quarters of the globe to the alternative of joining 
them as allies or encountering them as foes. Mr. Jef- 
ferson met them with moral philosophy and commer- 
cial restrictions, with dry-docks and gun-boats — with 
non-intercourses, and embargoes, till the American na- 
tion were told that they could not be kicked into a 
war, and till they were taunted by a British Statesman 
in the Imperial Parliament of England, with their 
five fir frigates and their striped bunting. 

Mr. Jerterson jjursued his policy of peace till it 
brought the nation to the borders of internal war. An 
embargo of fourteen months duration was at last re- 
luctantly abandoned by him, when it had ceased to be 
obeyed by the people, and State Courts were ready to 
pronounce it unconstitutional. A non-intercourse was 
then substituted in its place, and the helm of State 
passed from the hands of Mr. Jeflerson to those of 
Mr. Madison, precisely at the moment of this 
perturbation of earth and sea threatened with 
war from abroad and at home, but with the prin- 
ciple definitively settled that in our intercourse with 
foreign nations, reason, justice and commercial re- 
strictions require live oak hearts and iron or brazen 
mouths to speak, that they may be distinctly heard, 
or attentively listened to, by the distant ear of foreign- 
ers, whether French or British, monarchical or repub- 
lican. 



J 



yO LIFE OF JAMES MADISON, 

The administration of Mr. Madison was with re- 
gard to its most essential principles, a continuation of 
that of Mr. Jefferson. He too was the friend of peace, 
and earnestly desirous of maintaining it. As a last 
resource for the preservation of it, an act of Congress 
prohibited all commercial intercourse with both bellige- 
rents, the prohibition to be withdrawn from either or 
both in the event of a repeal by either of the orders 
and decrees in violation of neutral rights. France 
ungraciously and equivocally withdrew her's. Brit- 
ain refused, hesitated, and at last conditionally with- 
drew her's when it was too late — after a formal de- 
claration of war had been issued by Congress at the 
recommendation of President Madison himself. 

Of the necessity, the policy or even the justice of 
this war, there are conflicting opinions, not yet, per- 
haps never to be, harmonized. This is not the time 
or the place to discuss them. The passions, the preju- 
dices and the partialities of that day have passed 
away. That it was emphatically a popular war, hav- 
ing reference to the whole people of the United 
States, will, I think, not be denied. That it was in a 
high degree unpopular in our own section of the Union, 
IS no doubt equally true; and that it was so, constitu- 
ted the greatest difliculties and prepared the most 
mortifying disasters in its prosecution. 

The war itself was an ordeal through which the 
Constitution of the United States, as the Government 
of a great nation, was to pass. Its trial in that respect 
was short but severe. In the intention of its founders, 



MFE OF JAMES MAUISOX. 91 

and particularly of Mr. Madison, it was a constitu- 
tion essentially pacific in its character, and for a na- 
tion above all others, the lover of peace — yet its great 
and most vigorous energies, and all its most formida- 
ble powers, are reserved for the state of war — and 
war is the condition in which the functions allotted to 
the separate States sink into impotence compared with 
those of the general Government. 

The war was brought to a close without any defi- 
nitive adjustment of the controverted principles in 
which it had originated. It left the questions of neu- 
tral commerce with an enemy and his colonies, of bot- 
tom and cargo, of blockade and contraband of war, 
and even of impressment, precisely as they had been 
before the war. With the European war all the con- 
flicts between belligerent and neutral riorhts had ceas- 
ed. Great Britain, triumphant as she was after a 
struggle of more than twenty year's duration — against 
revolutionary, republican and imperial France, was in 
no temper to y-eld the principles for which in the heat 
of her contest she had defied the power of neutrality 
and the voice of justice. As little were the Govern- 
ment or people of the United States disposed to yield 
principles, upon which, if there had been any error in 
their previous intercourse with the belligerent powers 
it was that of faltering for the preservation of peace, 
in the defence of the rights of neutrality, and of con- 
ceding too much to the lawless pretensions of naval 
war. 

The extreme solicitude of the American Govern- 



92 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

ment for the perpetuity of peace, especially with 
Great Britain, induced Mr. Madison to institute with 
her negotiations after the peace of Ghent, for the ad- 
justment of all these questions of maritime collisions 
between the warlike and the pacific nation. The 
claims of neutral right are all founded upon the pre- 
cepts of Christianity and the natural rights of man. 
The warring party's claim is founded upon the imme- 
morial usages of war, untempered and unmitigated by 
the chastening spirit of Christianity. They all rest 
upon the right of force — or upon what has been term- 
ed the ultimate argument of Kings. But since the 
whole Island of Albion has been united under one 
Government, her foreign wars have necessarily all 
been upon or beyond the seas. Her consolidation and 
her freedom have made her the first of Maratime 
States, and the first of humane, learned, intelligent, 
but warlike nations of modern days. At home, she 
is generous, beneficent, tender-hearted, and above all 
proud of her liberty and loyalty united as in one. 
Free as the air upon her mountains, she tyrannizes 
over one class of her people, and that the very class 
upon which she depends for the support of her free- 
dom. She proclaims that the foot, be it of a slave, 
by alighting on her soil, emancipates the man; and as 
if it were the exclusive right of her soil, the foot of 
her own mariner, by passing from it upon the deck of 
a ship, slips into the fetters of a slave. There is no 
writ of Habeas Corpus for a British sailor. The stimu- 
lant to his love of his king and country is the Press 
Gang. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 93 

This glaring inconsistency with the first principles 
of the British Constitution, is justified on the plea of 
necessity, which being above all law, claims equal ex- 
emption from responsibility to the tribunal ot reason. 
The efforts of Mr. Madison and of his successors to 
obtain an amicable adjustment of this great source of 
hostility between the kindred nations have hitherto 
proved equally unavailing. One short interval has 
occurred since the peace, during which a war broke 
.out between France and Spain, to which Britain was 
neutral, and the views of her ruling Statesmen were 
then favorable to the rights of neutrality. Had that 
war been of longer continuance, the prospects of a 
mitisration of the customs of maritimj? warfare might 
have been more propitious ; but we can now only in- 
dulge the hope that the glory of extinguishing the 
flames of war by land and sea is reserved for the fu- 
ture destinies of our confederated land. 

The peace with Great Britain was succeeded by a 
short war with Algiers, in which the first example was 
set of a peace with that piratical power purchased by 
chastisement substituted for tribute — and which set 
the last seal to the policy of maintaining the rights 
and interests of the United States by a permanent 
naval force. 

The revolutions in Spain, and in her Colonies of 
this hemisphere, complicated with questions of dispu- 
ted boundaries, and with claims of indemnity for dep- 
redations upon our commerce, formed subjects for im- 
portant negotiations during the war with Great Brit- 



94 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

ain, and after its close. Never, since the institution 
of civil society, have there been within so short a 
time so many assumptions of sovereign powers. The 
crown of Spain was abdicated by Charles the Fourth, 
and then by his son Ferdinand, while a prisoner to 
Napoleon, at Bayon)ie, transferred to the house of 
Bonaparte, as the kingdom of Naples had been by 
conquest before. In Germany, the dissolution of the 
German empire had generated a kingdom of West- . 
phalia, and converted into kingdoms the electorates of 
Saxony, of Bavaria, of Wurtemburg and of Hanover. 
The kingdom of Portugal had been overshadowed by 
an empire of Brazil, and every petty province of 
Spain in this hemisphere, down to the Floridas and 
Amelia Island, constituted themselves into sovereign 
States, unfurled their flags and claimed their seats 
among the potentates of the earth. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it became often a question of great deli- 
cacy, who should be recognised as such, and with 
whom an exchange of diplomatic functionaries should 
be made. There was, during Mr. Madison's admin- 
istration, a period during which war was waged in 
Spain for the restoration of a Prince who had himself 
renounced his throne. A regency acting in his name 
was recognized by Great Britain, under whose auspi- 
ces he was finally restored. Napoleon had given the 
crown of Spain, wrested by fraud and violence from 
the Bourbons, to his brother, who was recognized as 
king of Spain by all the continental powers of Europe, 
and it was in the conflict between these two usurpers, 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 95 

that tlie transatlantic Colonies of Spain in this hemis- 
phere, disclaiming allegiance to either of the conten- 
ding parties, asserted their own rights as independent 
communities. Mr. .Madison believed it to be the duty 
and the policy of the United States, while the fact re- 
mained to be decided bv the issue of war, to withhold 
the acknowledgment of sovereign power alike from 
them all. The reception of a minister appointed by 
the regency of Spain, was therefore delayed, until he 
was commissioned by Ferdinand himself after his res 
toration, and the total expulsion of his rival Joseph, 
Bonaparte. But most of the American Colonies of 
Spain, released from their bounds of subjection to a 
Eurojjean king, by the first dethronement and abdica- 
tion of Charles the Fourth, refused ever after all sub- 
mission to the monarchs of Sj)ain, and those on the 
American Continents which submitted for a time short- 
ly after, declared and have maintained their Indepen- 
dence, yet however unacknowledged by Spain. No 
general union of the several Colonics of Spain, analo- 
gous to that of the British Colonies in these United 
States, has been or is ever likely to be established. 
The several Vice Royalties have in their dissolution, 
melted into masses of confederated or consolidated 
Governments. They have been ravaged by incessant 
internal dissensions and civil war. As they attempt 
to unite in one, or as they separate into parts, new 
States present themselves, claiming the prerogatives 
of sovereignty, and the powers of Independent na- 
tions. The European kingdoms of France, Spain, 



96 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

Portugal, the Netherlands and Greece have been in the 
same convulsionary State with contending claims of 
sovereign power, so that the question of recognition, 
in almost numberless cases, and under a multitude of 
forms has been before the Government of the United 
States for decision. 

The act of recognition, being an execution of the 
laws of nations, is an attribute of executive power, 
and has therefore been invariably performed under the 
present Constitution of the United States by their 
President. Mr. Madison withheld this recognition 
from the minister of the Spanish Regency, but yielded 
it to the same person, when commissioned by Ferdi- 
nand. He" left to his successors the obligation of with- 
holding and of conceding the acknowledgment, as the 
duties of this nation might from time to time forbid or 
enjoin; and a question of the deepest interest, under 
circumstances pregnant with unparalleled consequen- 
ces, is while I speak under the consideration, and sub- 
ject to the decision of the President of the United 
States. 

The severest trials of our country induced by the 
war with Great Britain were endured by the disorder 
of the national finances. The revenues of the Union 
until then had consisted almost exclusively in the pro- 
ceeds of taxation by impost on imported merchandize. 
Excises,' land taxes, and taxes upon stamps were re- 
sorted to during the war, but were always found more 
burdensome and less acceptable to the people. It is, 
however, a disadvantage, perhaps counterbalanced by 



LIFE OF JAMES .MADISO.X. 97 

consequences more permanently beneficial in our po- 
litical system, that the revenue from impost, more ea- 
sily collected and more productive than any other in 
time of peace, must necessarily fail, almost entirelv, 
in war with a nation of superior maritime force. Our 
admirable system of settlement and disposal of the 
public lands had been long established, but was at that 
time and for many years since little known by its 
fruits. It is doubtful whether until the last year the 
proceeds of the sales have been sulFicient to defray 
the cost of the purchase, and the expenses of manage- 
ment. The prices at which they are sold have been 
reduced, while the wages of labor have risen, till the 
purchaser for settlement receives them upon terms 
nearly gratuitous. They are now an inestimable 
pource of a copious revenue, and if honestly and care- 
fully managed for the people to whom they belontr, 
may hereafter alleviate the bdrden of taxation in all 
its forms. But when the w ar with Great Britain was 
declared in 1812, the population of this Union was 
less than one half its numbers at the present day. It 
increases now at the average rate- of half a million of 
souls every year. For this state of unexampled pros- 
perity a tribute of gratitude and applause is due to the 
administration of Madison, for the wise and concilia- 
tory policy upon which it was conducted from the close 
of the war, until the end of his second Presidential 
term, in March 1817, when he voluntarily retired 
from pubhc life. 

From that day, for a period advancing upon its 



98 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

twentieth year, he Hved in a happy retirement ; in the 
bosom of a family, and with a partner for Ufe ahke 
adapted to the repose and comfort of domestic priva- 
cy, as she had been to adorn and dignify the highest of 
pubhc stations. Between the occupations of agricul- 
ture, the amusements of literature, and the exercise 
of beneficence, the cultivation of the soil, of the mind 
and of the heart, the leisure of his latter days was di- 
vided. In 1829, a Convention was held in Virginia for 
the revisal of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, 
in which transaction the people of the State again en- 
joyed the benefit of his long experience and his calm 
and conciliatory counsels. The unanimous sense of 
that body would have deferred to him the honor of 
presiding over their deliberations, but the infirmities 
of age had already so far encroached upon the vigor 
of his constitution, that he declined in the most deli- 
cate manner the nomination, by proposing himself the 
election of his friend and successor to the Chief Mas- 
istracy of the Union, James Monroe. He was accor- 
dingly chosen without any other nomination, but was 
afterwards himself so severely indisposed, that he was 
compelled to resign both the Presidency and his seat 
in the Convention before they had concluded their 
labors. 

On one occasion of deep interest to the people of 
the State, on the question of the ratio of representa- 
tion in the two branches of the Legislature, Mr. Madi- 
son took ap active part, and made a speech the sub- 
stance of which has been preserved. 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISOA, 99 

" Such in those moments as in all tiie past." 

This speech is so perfectly characteristic of the man, 
that it might itself be considered as an epitome of his 
hfe. Though delivered upon a question, which in a 
discussion upon a Constitution of this Commonwealth 
could not even be raised, it was upon a subject which 
probed to the deepest foundations the institution of 
civil society. It was upon the condition of the colored 
population of the Commonwealth, and upon their re- 
lations as persons and as property to the State. Every 
part of the speech is full of the spirit which animated 
him through life. Nor can I resist the temptation to 
repeat a few short passagf.'S from it, which may serve 
as samples of the whole. 

" It is sufficiently obvious, said Mr. Madison, that 
persons and property are the two great objects on 
which Governments are to act ; that the rio-hts of 
persons and the rights of property are the objects for 
the protection of which Government was instituted. 
These rights cannot well be separated. The personal 
right • to acquire property, which is a natural right, 
gives to property when acquired, a right to protec- 
tion, as a social right." 

" It is due to justice ; due to humanity ; due to 
truth ; to the sympathies of our nature in fine, to our 
character as a people, both abroad and at home ; that 
the colored part of our population should be consider- 
ed, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, 
and not as mere property. As such, they are acted 
upon by our laws, and have an interest in our laws." 



100 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

"In framing a Constitution, great difficulties are 
necessarily to be overcome ; and nothing can ever 
overcome them but a spirit of compromise. Other 
nations are surprised at nothing so much as our having 
been able to form constitutions in the manner which 
has been exempUfied in this country. Even the union 
of so many States, is, in the eyes of the world, a 
wonder ; the harmonious establishment of a common 
Government over them all, a miracle. I cannot but 
flatter myself that without a miracle, we shall be able 
to arrange all difficulties. I never have despaired, 
notwithstanding all the threatening appearances we 
have passed through. I have now more than a hope 
— a consoling confidence — that we shall at last find 
that our labors have not been in vain." 

Mr. Madison was associated with his friend Jefter- 
son in the institution of the University of Virginia, 
and after his decease was placed at its head, under 
the modest and unassuming title of Rector. He was 
also the President of an Agricultural Society in the 
county of his residence, and in that capacity delivered 
an address, which the practical farmer and the classi- 
cal scholar may read with equal profit and delight. 

In the midst of these occupations the declining days 
of the Philosopher, the Statesman, and the Patriot 
were past, until the 28th day of June last, the anni- 
versary of the day on which the ratification of the 
Convention of Virginia in 1788 had affixed the seal of 
James Madison as the father of the Constitution of 
the United States, when his earthly part sunk without 



LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 101 

a struggle into the grave, and a spirit bright as the 
seraphim that surround the throne of omnipotence, 
ascended to the bosom of his God. 

This Constitution, my countrymen, is the great re- 
sult of the North American revolution. This is the 
giant stride in the improvement of the condition of 
the human race, consummated in a period of less than 
one hundred years. Of the signers of the address to 
George the Third in the Congress of 1774 — of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 — 
of the sif'ncrs of the Articles of Confederation in 
1781, and of the signers of the federal and national 
Constitution of Government under which we live, 
with enjoyments never before allotted to man, not one 
remains in the land of the living. The last survivor 
of them all was he to honor whose memory we are 
here assembled at once with mourning and with joy. 
We reverse the order of sentiment and reflection of 
the ancient Persian king — we look hack on the cen- 
tury gone by — we look around with anxious and eager 
eye for one of that illustrious host of Patriots and 
heroes, under whose guidance the revolution of 
American Independence was begun, and continued and 
completed. We look around in vain. To them this 
crowded theatre, full of human life, in all its stages 
of existence, full of the glowing exultation of youth, 
of the steady maturity of manhood, the sparkling 
eyes of beauty, and the grey hairs of reverend 
age — all this to them is as the solitude of the 
sepulchre. We think of this and say, how short is 



102 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

human life ! But then, then, we turn back our 
thoughts again, to the scene over which the falHng 
curtain has but now closed upon the drama of the 
day. From the saddening thought that they are no 
more, we call for comfort upon the memory of what 
they were, and our hearts leap for joy, that they were 
our fathers. We see them, true and faithful subjects 
of their sovereign, first meeting with firm but respect- 
ful remonstrance, the approach of usurpation upon 
their rights. We see them, fearless in their fortitude, 
and confident in the righteousness of their cause, bid 
defiance to the arm of power, and declare themselves 
Independent States. We see them, waging for seven 
years a war of desolation and of glory, in most un- 
equal contest with their own unnatural step-mother, 
the mistress of the seas, till under the sign manual of 
their king, their Independence was acknowledged — 
and last and best of all, we see them, toiling in war 
and in peace to form and perpetuate an union, under 
forms of Government intricately but skilfully adjusted 
so as to secure to themselves and their posterity the 
priceless blessings of inseparable liberty and law. 

Their days on earth are ended, and yet their cen- 
tury has not passed away. Their portion of the 
blessings which they thus labored to secure, they have 
enjoyed, and transmitted to us, their posterity. We 
enjoy them as an inheritance — won, not by our toils 
— watered, not with our tears — saddened, not by the 
shedding of any blood of ours. The gift of heaven 
through their sullerings and their achievements — but 



LIFE OF JAiMES MADISON. 103 

not without a charge of corresponding duty mcum- 
bent upon ourselves. 

And what, my friends and fellow citizens— what is 
that duty of our own 1 Is it to remonstrate to the 
adder's ear of a king beyond the Atlantic wave, and 
claim from him the restoration of violated rights ? 
No. Is it to sever the ties of kindred and of blood 
with the people from whom we sprang? To cast 
away the precious name of Britons, and be no more 
the countrymen of Shakspeare and Milton— of New- 
ton and Locke— of Chatham and Burke ? Or more 
and worse, is it to meet their countrymen in the deadly 
conflict of a seven years' war ? No. Is it the last and 
greatest of the duties fulfilled by them 1 Is it to lay 
the foundations of the fairest Government and the 
mightiest nation that ever floated on the tide of time 1 
No ! These awful and solemn duties were allotted to 
them ; and by them they were faithfully performed. 
What then is our duty ? 

Is it not to preserve, to cherish, to improve the in- 
heritance which they have left us— won by their toils 
—watered by their tears— saddened but fertilized by 
their blood? Are we the sons of worthy sires, and in 
the onward march of time have they achieved in the 
career of human improvement so much, only that our 
posterity and theirs may blush for the contrast be- 
tween their unexampled energies and our nerveless 
impotence? between their more than Herculean 
labors and our indolent repose? No, my fellow 
citizens, far be from us ; far be from you, for he who 



104 LIFE OF JAMES MADISON. 

now addresses you has but a few short days before he 
shall be called to join the multitude of ages past — far 
be from you the reproach or the suspicion of such a 
degrading contrast. You too have the solemn duty 
to perform, of improving the condition of your 
species, by improving your own. Not in the great 
and strong wind of a revolution, which rent the moun- 
tains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord — 
for the Lord is not in the wind — not in the earthquake 
of a revolutionary war, marching to the onset be- 
tween the battle field and the scaffold — for the Lord 
is not in the earthquake — not in the fire of civil dis- 
sension — in war between the members and the head — 
in nullification of the laws of the Union by the for- 
cible resistance of one refractory State — for the Lord 
is not in the fire ; and that fire was never kindled by 
your fathers ! No ! it is in the still small voice that 
succeeded the whirlwind, the earthquake and the fire. 
The voice that stills the raging of the waves and the 
tumults of the people — that spoke the words of peace 
— of harmony — of union. And for that voice, may 
you and your children's children, '' to the last syllable 
of recorded time," fix your eyes upon the memory, 
and Hsten with your ears to the life of James Madison. 



MADISON^S ADMINISTRATION. 



Long previous to the expiration of Mr. Jefferson's 
second presidential term, the general sentiment of the 
Republican party, particularly in the southern and 
western states, appeared to he in favor of Mr. Madi- 
son as his successor. It seemed peculiarly appropri- 
ate that he should be selected for that high office, in 
order that the delicate negotiations with Enjiland and 
France which he had so long conducted, — as was con- 
ceded on all hands, with masterly ability, — might be 
brought to a satisfactory termination under his imme- 
diate auspices. The New York Republicans, and es- 
pecially the Clinton family and their friends, had for 
some time looked forward with confidence, to the 
nomination of their distinguished leader and head, 
George Clinton, then filling the second office in the 
Nation ; and it is more than probable that their expec- 
tations would have been realized, had he been a younger 
and more active man, or had the foreign relations of 
the government been in a less complicated state. But 
at the caucus of the Republican members of Congress 

held just before the close of-the session, in the winter 

5* 



106 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

of 1808, Mr. Madison was the successful candidate, 
and Mr. Clinton was renominated for the Vice Presi- 
dency. 

Some little dissatisfaction was manifested by the 
friends of Mr. Clinton; and he himself hesitated about 
accepting the nomination, but did not decline in the 
end. The canvass terminated with the election of the 
candidates nominated in the caucus, by a very large 
majority, — Mr. Madison receiving one hundred and 
twenty-two of the one hundred and seventy-six elec- 
toral votes. 

On the 4th day of March, 1809, Mr. Madison took 
the oath of office, and delivered his inaugural address, 
in the capitol at Washington. Though the tone of 
the latter was pacificatory, its author held out no hope 
that the lowering aspect of affairs would soon be 
changed for the better, but plainly intimated that the 
honor and interests of the nation would be maintained 
at all hazards, and that, to render these secure, it 
might be necessary to resort to arms. 

With reference to the general principles which 
should govern him in the administration of the gov- 
ernment, he said : " To cherish peace and friendly in- 
tercourse with all nations having correspondent dispo- 
sitions ; to maintain sincere neutrality toward bellige- 
rent nations ; to prefer in all cases amicable discus- 
sion and reasonable accommodation of differences to 
a decision of them by an appeal to arms ; to exclude 
foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading 
to all countries and so baneful to free ones ; to foster 



Madison's ad.mimstration. 107 

a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights 
of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal 
to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves, and too ele- 
vated not to look down upon them in others ; to hold 
the union of the states as the basis of their peace and 
happiness ; to support the constitution, which is the 
cement of the union, as well in its limitations as in its 
authorities ; to respect the rights and authorities re- 
served to the states and to the people, as equally incor- 
porated with, and essential to the success of, the gen- 
eral system ; to avoid the slightest interference with 
the rights of conscience or the functions of religion, 
so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction ; to preserve 
in their full energy the other salutary provisions in be- 
half of ])rivate and personal rights, and of the free- 
dom of the press ; to observe economy in pubhc ex- 
penditures ; to liberate the public resources by an hon- 
orable discharge of the public debts ; to keep within 
the requisite limits a standing military force, always 
remembering that an armed and trained militia is the 
firmest bulwark of republics — that without standing 
armies their liberties can never be in danger, nor with 
large ones safe ; to promote by authorized means, 
improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, 
and to external as well as internal commerce ; to fa- 
vor in like manner the advancement of science and 
the diffusion of information as the best aliment to true 
liberty ; to carry on the benevolent plans which have 
been so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our 
aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and wretch- 



108 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

edness of savage life to a participation of the improve 
ments of which the human mind and manners are 
susceptible in a civilized state ; as far as sentiments 
and intentions such as these can aid the fulfilment of 
my duty, they will be a resource which cannot 
fail me." 

As if to leave no room for doubt, that he cordially 
and heartily concurred in the views and opinions 
which had ever guided and controlled the public ca- 
reer of his distinguished predecessor, and which, at 
the recent election, had been a third time emphatical- 
ly endorsed and approved by the American people, he 
further remarked : — " It is my good fortune, moreover, 
to have the path in which I am to tread lighted by ex- 
amples of illustrious services, successfully rendered 
in the most trying difficulties by those who have 
marched before me. Of those of my immediate pre- 
decessor it might least become me here to speak. I 
may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the 
sympathy with which my heart is full, in the rich re- 
ward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved coun- 
try, gratefully bestowed for exalted talents, zealously 
devoted, through a long career, to the advancement of 
its highest interest and happiness." 

Immediately after his inauguration, Mr. Madison or- 
ganized his cabinet by the promotion of Robert Smith, 
of Maryland, Secretary of the Navy under Mr. Jef- 
ferson, to the State Department. Albert Gallatin, of 
Pennsylvania, was continued in the office of Secreta- 
ry of the Treasury, and Ceesar A. Rodney, of Dela- 



Madison's administration. 109 

ware, in that of attorney-general. William Eustis, 
of Massachusetts, was appointed Secretary of War, 
in the place of Henry Dearborn, transferred to the 
coUectorship of the port of Boston ; and the vacancy 
in the Navy Department was filled by the selection of 
Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina. Gideon Granger, 
of New York, was continued as postmaster general, 
not then a cabinet officer. 

Having completed the list of his advisers, when the 
new president turned to survey his position, he found 
that it was by no means an enviable one. The firm- 
ness, the unflinching determination, and the resolute 
and enthusiastic perseverance of Jefferson, Gallatin, 
Clinton, Livingston, and their coadjutors, had, indeed, 
been successful in restoring the ship of state to the 
republican track ; yet he had inherited, as a legacy, 
all the embarrassments and difficulties in the foreign 
relations of the government, which had originated du- 
ring the administration of Washington, and, from year 
to year, become more and more involved, and grown 
more and more perplexing, till it seemed as if the 
Gordian knot could be severed only by the sword. At 
home all might have been peace and prosperity ; but 
every thing that would otherwise have appeared bright 
and fair, rested in the dark shadow thrown from the 
other side of the Atlantic. 

" Many years elapsed after the conclusion of the 
treaty of peace in 1783, before Great Britain entirely 
abandoned her expectations of re-establishing, at some 
future, and not very remote day, her authority over 



110 Madison's admlmstration. 

her revolted American colonies, it was customary 
for her writers and politicians to underrate the im- 
portance, and sneer at the pretensions of the young 
republic, till they saw, in the rapidly extending com- 
merce and growing prosperity which followed the 
restoration of peace and tranquiUty, unmistakable 
indications that the daughter would soon be no mean 
rival of the mother country in the race of nations. 
To check these germs of greatness ere they should 
bud and blossom, was now the favorite object of En- 
ghsh statesmen. As no pretext existed for open hos- 
tilities, resort was had to the low arts of diplomacy — 
to intrigue and cunning ; and amid the moral and poli- 
tical corruption which, at that era, polluted the atmo- 
sphere of St. James, plans were concocted whose 
atrocity must ever stand out in bold relief on the 
page of impartial history. 

" Disregarding the provisions of the treaty of 1783, 
the British authorities retained possession of the military 
posts northwest of the Ohio, and to these, and similar 
establishments in the Canadas, agents were sent to 
suborn and tamper with the savages on the northern 
frontiers of the American Union, and incite them to 
commit acts of hostility upon the persons and property 
of the settlers who had found their way into the rich 
valley of the Mississippi. It was the pohcy of Wash- 
ington, — and after him of Adams, Jefferson and Ma- 
dison, — to purchase the lands belonging to the Indian 
tribes, required by the increasing white population 
of the country, at a fair equivalent ; to furnish 
them the means of civilization ; to provide for ihem 



madison'8 administration. Ill 

the restraints of well-ordered and wholesome regula- 
tions ; to enkindle new desires, and impart new mo- 
tives in their breasts ; to enlighten their minds and 
christianize their hearts. England, on the contrary, 
forgetting the eloquent and indignant denunciations of 
her Chatham, and careless how she sullied the national 
escutcheon, already stained by many a foul blot, sup- 
plied them with arms and ammunition, — with blankets, 
tobacco and fire water, — not to induce them to culti- 
vate harmony and good will with their neighbors, the 
citizens of the United States ; but to minister to their 
most depraved appetites, and arouse the most vindic- 
tive passions of their natures. She asked them not to 
lay aside the implements of death, and engage in the 
pursuits of peace ; but invited them to continue their 
barbarous warfare, and glut their vengeance, to the 
full, with the tomahawk and scalping-knife ! 

" Under the auspices of Simcoe, and other agents 
of Great Britain, immediately after the peace, a com- 
bination was formed among the northwestern Indians, 
the object of which was to prevent the Americans 
from extending their settlements beyond the Allegha- 
nies. Th6 border inhabitants were constantly har- 
rassed by the irruptions of the savages ; scenes of 
bloodshed and murder were of frequent occurrence ; 
and when efforts were made to chastise the perpetra- 
tors of these outrages, they found in England a fast 
and firm friend, whose assistance, though not openly 
rendered, proved of essential service to her allies. 
Her influence was felt in the defeat of Harmar and 



112 Madison's administration. 

St. Clair ; and when the mounted volunteers under 
the gallant Wayne, scattered the savages in confu- 
sion, on the banks of the Maumee, they fled for pro- 
tection beneath the guns of a fortress over which 
floated the red cross of St. George. 

" The defeat of the Indians by Wayne was a severe 
lesson, and it was long remembered. Fortunately, 
too, for our country, who needed only a season of 
peace, and reposed from ' war's alarms,' to advance 
with rapid strides to the high destiny before her — the 
revolutionary spirit had, at this time, crossed the At- 
lantic, and the watch fires of liberty were blazing on 
the continent cf Europe. Alarmed for the stability 
of her institutions at home, England had no time to 
spend in courting the favor of the North American 
savages ; even though her machinations promised to 
terminate in the restoration of ' the brightest jewel of 
her crown.' In November, 1794, three months after 
Wayne's victory, Mr. Jay concluded his commercial 
treaty, in which it was stipulated that the western 
posts should be surrendered by the first of June, 1796, 
which was accordingly done ; and in the summer of 
1795, as we have seen, the treaty of Grenville was 
made with the Indian tribes. The quiet thus restored 
was deceitful and temporary in its duration. 

" The treaty of Mr. Jay provided, among other 
things, for compensation for British spoliations on Ame- 
rican commerce, growing out of the war with France ; 
yet the ratifications of that instrument had scarcely 
been exchanged, when outrages of the same charac- 



Madison's administration. 113 

ter, but greater in degree, were committed. Taking 
advantage of the distracted state of afiairs on the 
continent, the enterprising citizens of America had 
extensively engaged in the carrying trade ; and their 
commerce "had increased with so much rapidity, that 
the jealousy of England was again awakened. Large 
quantities of American provisions were also shipped 
to Europe, and especially to France, and to her pos- 
sessions in the West Indies. The prices paid for 
which, owing to the continuance of hostilities, afforded 
handsome profits ; but this interfered, very materially, 
with the determination of England, by means of her 
maratime supremacy, to starve the French people into 
an abandonment of their republican notions ; and to 
prevent it, she caused blockades to be declared, which 
were enforced by no suitable naval power, and orders 
to be issued, in defiance of the law of nations, requir- 
ing neutral vessels to be seized though not carrying 
articles contraband of war. 

" Remonstrance on the part of the authorities of 
the United States, was of no avail. The example set 
by England was followed by France — every act of 
injustice on the one side being succeeded by a still 
more odious one on the other. The treaty of Amiens, 
in 1802, aiforded the Americans a brief respite ; but, 
on the renewal of the war, in the following year, sei- 
zures and condemnations of our vessels became more 
frequent than ever. England joined the coalition 
formed to establish continental despotism on a firmer 
basis, and restore the Bourbon dynasty to the throne 



114 Madison's administration. 

which they had disgraced ; and she stopped at nothing 
to accomphsh her purposes. Not content with watch- 
ing the forts of France, she sent her privateers and 
vessels of war, under her pirate flag, to hover on our 
coast, and plunder our commerce. Her navy having 
been seriously reduced in men, by the long continued 
warfare in which she had been engaged, she likewise 
resorted to the impressment of American seamen, to 
fill up the complements of her crews. Large num- 
bers of sailors were taken from our merchantmen ; 
and, to conclude these high-handed offences, the fri- 
gate Chesapeake was despoiled of a portion of her 
crew, on the twenty-second day of June, 1807."* 

While these measures, designed and calculated to 
destroy the commerce, and cripple the prosperity of 
the American people, were being systematically pur- 
sued on the ocean, the emissaries of Great Britain 
were covertly at work among the northwestern sa- 
vages — poisoning their minds, souring their disposi- 
tions, inflaming their passions, and preparing them in 
every way for the resort to arms, which, they fore- 
saw, must eventually take place. 

The government of the United States had patiently 
endured many an act of injustice, during the adminis- 
tration of Washington, Adams and Jefi'erson. She 
suffered much in her weakness, which she would not 
now tolerate in her strength. 

Year ' after year she insisted, through her envoys, 

* Jenkins' " Generals of the Last War with Great Britain." 



Madison's ad.mimstratiox. 115 

on " the suppression of impressments, and the defini- 
tion of blockades ;" and when, in 1804, the Bzitish 
minister at Washington, in the name and on the behaU' 
of his sovereign, distinctly recognized the legitimate 
principles of blockade, the hope was fondly indulged 
than an amicable arrangement of all existing diliicul- 
ties and disputes would soon be made. 

But this hope proved to be vain and delusive. Great 
Britain was determined on maintaining her naval su- 
periority, and monoj)ohzing the commerce of the 
world. She regarded no promise — she respected no 
obligation. Her plans were soon matured ; and she 
attempted, by one blow, to destroy the merchant ma- 
rine of the infant republic, then reaping a golden har- 
vest, and humble forever the power and pride of her 
great rival. In May, 1800, the famous " paper block- 
ade" was signed, closing the ports of France, from 
Brest to the Elbe, against the ships of neutral nations. 
No adequate naval force was stationed on the French 
coast to enforce the blockade ; but a fleet was des- 
patched to the shores of the United States, three 
thousand miles off, to capture every vessel suspected 
of a design to evade it. This act of aggression on 
our commerce, for such was its effect and such was 
its design, was the main moving cause of the war of 
1812. 

No apology can, or need be offered, for the conduct 
of France. Yet the blockade of her ports was the 
excuse or justification, on which, as was natural, she 
relied, to defend the retaliatory decree promulgated 



116 Madison's administration. 

at Berlin, in the following November. Patience and 
forbearance still continued to characterize the conduct 
of the American Government. Though the sanctity 
of her flag has been disregarded, though numbers of 
seamen had been impressed from her vessels, and 
though the national honor had been outraged and in- 
sulted by the attack on the Chesapeake, she content- 
ed herself with interdicting British armed vessels 
from entering her harbors. This mild and moderate 
policy but invited further aggression. On the 1 1 th of 
November, 1807, the British orders in council were 
issued ; and on the 17th of December in the same 
year, the French Emperor retaliated, by the Milan 
decree.* 

The United States were now " compelled to de- 
cide, either to withdraw their sea-faring citizens, and 
their commercial wealth from the ocean, or to leave 
the interests of the mariner and the merchant expos- 
ed to certain destruction ; or to engage in open and 
active war for the protection and defence of those in- 
terests. The principles and the habits of the Ameri- 
can government were still disposed to neutrality and 
peace. In weighing the nature and the amount of the 
aggressions which had been perpetrated, or which 
were threatened, if there were any preponderance to 
determine the balance against one of the belligerent 

*The Milan decree was not of course, known to have been issued, in 
the United States, when the Embargo act of the 22d December, 1807, 
was passed : but, nevertheless, France was not excepted from its pro- 
visions. 



Madison's admimstratiOxV. 117 

powers rather than the other, as the object of a deo- 
laration of war, it was against Great Britain, at least 
upon the vital interest of impressment, and the obvi- 
ous superiority of her naval means of annoyance. The 
French decrees were, indeed, as obnoxious in their for- 
mation and design as the British orders ; but the gov- 
ernment of France claimed and exercised no right of 
impressment ; and the maritime spoliations of France 
were, comparatively restricted not only by her own 
weakness on the ocean, but by the constant and per- 
vading vigilance of the fleets of her enemy. The 
dilHculty of selection, the indiscretion of encounter- 
ing, at once, both of the offending powers ; and, above 
all, the hope of an early return of justice, under the 
dispensations of the ancient public law, prevailed in 
the councils of the American government ; and it was 
resolved to attempt the preservation of its neutrality 
and its peace, of its citizens and its resources, by a 
voluntary suspension of the commerce and navigation 
of the United States. It is true, that for the minor 
outrages committed under the pretext of the rule of 
war of 1756, the citizens of every denomination had 
demanded from their government, in the year 1805, 
protection and redress ; it is true, that for the unpar- 
alleled enormities of the year 1807, the citizens of 
every denomination again demanded from their gov- 
ernment protection and redress ; but it is, also, a 
truth, conclusively established by every manifestation 
of the sense of the American people, as well as of 
their government, that any honorable means of pro- 



118 Madison's administration. 

tection and redress were preferred to the last resort 
of arms. The American' government might honora- 
bly retire, for a time, from the scene of conflict and 
collision ; but it could no longer, with honor, permit 
its flag to be insulted, its citizens to be enslaved, and 
its property to be plundered, on the highway of na- 
tions. 

" Under these impressions, the restrictive system of 
the United States was introduced. In December, 1807, 
an embargo was imposed upon all American vessels 
and merchandize, on principles similar to those which 
originated and regulated the embargo law, authorized 
to be laid by the President of the United States, in the 
year 1794 ; but soon afterwards, in the genuine spirit 
of the policy that prescribed the measure, it was de- 
clared by law, 'that in the event of such peace, or 
suspension of hostilities between the belHgerent pow- 
ers of Europe, or such changes in their measures af- 
fecting neutral commerce, as might render that of the 
United States safe, in the judgment of the President 
of the United States, he was authorized to suspend the 
embargo, in whole, or in part.' The pressure of the 
embargo was thought, however, so severe upon every 
part of the community, that the American government 
notwithstanding the neutral character of the measure, 
determined upon some relaxation ; and, accordingly, 
the embargo being raised, as to all other nations, a 
system of non-intercourse and non-importation was 
substituted, in March, 1809, as to Great Britain and 
France, which prohibited all voyages to the British 



MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 119 

or French dominions, and all trade in articles of Brit- 
ish or French product or manufacture.* But still ad- 
hering to the neutral and pacific policy of the govern- 
ment, it was declared, ' that the President of the Uni- 
ted States should be authorized, in case either France 
or Great Britain should so revoke or modify her edicts, 
as that they should cease to violate the neutral com- 
merce of the United States, to declare the same by 
proclamation, after which the trade of the United 
States might be renewed with the government so do- 
ing.' These appeals to the justice and the interests of 
the belligerent powers proving inefiectual, and the ne- 
cessities of the country increasing, it was finally re- 
solved by the American government to take the haz- 
ards of a war ; to revoke its restrictive system, and 
to exclude British and French armed vessels from the 
harbors and waters of the United States ; but, asain, 
emphatically to announce, * that in case either Great 
Britain or France should, before the 3d of March, 
1811, so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they 
should cease to violate the neutral commerce of the 
United States ; and if the other nation should not, 
within three months thereafter, so revoke or modify 
her edicts, in like manner, the provisions of the non- 
intercourse and non-importation law should, at the ex- 
piration of three months, be revived against the na- 



*The non-intercourse law was passed on the 1st day of March, 1809, 
ihree days previous to the inauguration of Mr. Madison. 



120 Madison's administration. 

tion refusing, or neglecting to revoke or modify its 
edict.'* 

"On the expiration of three months from the date 
of the president's proclamation, the non-intercourse 
and non-importation law was, of course, to be revived 
against Great Britain, unless, during that period, her 
orders in council should be revoked. The subject 
was, therefore most anxiously and most steadily press- 
ed upon the justice and the magnanimity of the Brit- 
ish government ; and even when the hope of success 
expired, by the lapse of the period prescribed in one 
act of Congress, the United States opened the door 
of reconciliation by another act, which, in the year 
1811, again provided, that in case, at any time. Great 
Britain should so revoke or modify her edicts, as that 
they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of 
the United States, the President of the United States 
should declare the fact by proclamation ; and that the 
restrictions, previously imposed, should, from the date 
of such proclamation, cease and be discontinued.'! 
But, unhappily, every appeal to the justice and mag- 
nanimity of Great Britain was now, as heretofore, 
fruitless and forlorn. She had, at this epoch, impress- 
ed from the crews of American merchant vessels, 
peaceably navigating the high seas, not less than six 
thousand mariners, who claimed to be citizens of the 
United States, and who were denied all opportunity to 
verify their claims. She had seized and confiscated 

•Act of Congress, May 1st, 1810. tAct of Congress, March 2d, 1811. 



Madison's administration. 121 



r 



the commercial property of American citizens to an 
incalculable amount. She had united in the enormi- 
ties of France to declare a great proportion of the ter- 
raqueous globe in a state of blockade ; chasing the 
American merchant flag effectually from the ocean. 
She had contemptuously disregarded the neutrality of 
the American territory, and the jurisdiction of the 
American laws, within the waters and harbors of the 
United States. She was enjoVing the emoluments of 
a surreptitious trade, stained with every species of 
fraud and corruption, which gave to the belligerent 
powers the advantages of peace, while the neutral 
powers were involved in the evils of war. She had, 
in short, usurped and exercised on the water, a tyran- 
ny similar to that which her great antagonist had 
usurped and exercised upon the land. And, amidst all 
these proofs of ambition and avarice, she demanded 
that the victims of her usurpations and her violence 
should revere her as the sole defender of the rifhts 
and liberties of mankind. 

" When, therefore. Great Britain, in manifest viola- 
tion of her solemn promise, refused to follow the ex- 
ample of France, by the repeal of her orders in 
council, the American government was compelled to 
contemplate a resort to arms, as the only remaining 
course to be pursued for its honor, its independence, 
and its safety. Whatever depended upon the United 
States themselves, the United States had performed, 
for the preservation of peace, in resistance of the 

French decrees as well as of the British orders. 

6 



122 Madison's administratio.n. 

What had been required from France, in its relation 
to the neutral character of the United States, France 
had performed by the revocation of its Berhn and 
Milan decrees. But what depended upon Great Brit- 
ain, for the purposes of justice, in the repeal of her 
orders in council, was withheld, and new evasions 
were sought when the old were exhausted. It was, 
at one time, alleged that satisfactory proof was not 
afforded that France had repealed her decrees against 
the commerce of the United States, as if such proof 
alone were wanting to ensure the performance of the 
British promise. At another time it was insisted that 
the repeal of the French decrees in their operation 
against the United States, in order to authorize a de- 
mand for the performance of the British promise, 
must be total, applying equally to their internal and 
their external effects ; as if the United States had 
either the right or the power to impose upon France 
the law of her domestic institutions. And it was 
finally insisted, in a dispatch from Lord Castlereagh 
to the British minister residing at Washington, in the 
year 1812, which was officially communicated to the 
American government, ' that the decrees of Berlin 
and Milan must not be repealed singly and speciall}? 
in relation to the United States ; but must be repealed 
also' as to all other neutral nations ; and that in no 
less extent of a repeal of the French decrees, had the 
British government ever pledged itself to repeal the 
orders in Council ;'* as if it were incumbent on the 

* Correspondence between the American Secretary' and Mr. Foster 
the British minister, June, 1812. 



MADISON S ADMIMSl RATION. 123 

United States not only to assert her own rights, but 
to become the coadjutor of the British government, in 
a gratuitous assertion of the rights of all other nations. 

'* The Congress of the United States could pause 
no longer. Under a deep and afflicting sense of the 
national wrongs and the national resentments, while 
they * postponed definite measures with respect to 
France, in the expectation that the result of unclosed 
discussions between the American minister at Paris 
and the French government, would speedily enable 
them to decide, with greater advantage, on the 
course due to the rights, the interests, and the honor 
of the country,'* they pronounced a deliberate and 
solemn declaration of war between Great Britain and 
the United States on the 18th of June, 1812. 

" But it is in the face of all the facts which have 
been displayed in the present narrative, that the 
prince regent, by his declaration of January, 1813, 
describes the United States as the aggressor in the 
war. If the act of declaring war constitutes, in all 
cases, the act of original aggression, the United States 
must submit to the severity of the reproach ; but if 
the act of declaring war may be more truly con- 
sidered as the result of long suftering and necessary 
self-defence, the American government will stand ac- 
quitted in the sight of Heaven and of the world. 
Have the United States, then, enslaved the subjects, 
confiscated the property, prostrated the commerce, 

* President's Message, June 1st, 1812, and report of the committee 
of Foreign Relations. 



124 Madison's administration. 

insulted the flag, or violated the territorial sovereign- 
ty of Great Britain ? No ; but in all these respects 
the United States had suffered for a long period of 
years, previously to the declaration of war, the 
contumely and outrage of the British government. 
It has been said, too, as an aggravation of the im- 
puted aggression, that the United States chose a pe- 
riod for their declaration of war when Great Britain 
was struggling for her own existence against a power 
which threatened to overthrow the independence of 
all Europe ; but it might be more truly said, that the 
United States, not acting upon choice, but upon com- 
pulsion, delayed the declaration of war until the per- 
secutions of Great Britain had rendered further delay 
destructive and distrraceful. Great Britain had con- 
verted the commercial scenes of American opulence 
and prosperity into scenes of comparative poverty and 
distress. She had brought the existence of the United 
States, as an independent nation, into question ; and 
surely it must have been indifferent to the United 
States whether they ceased to exist as an independent 
nation, by her conduct, while she professed friend- 
ship, or by her conduct, when she avowed enmity and 
revenge. Nor is it true that the existence of Great 
Britain was in danger at the epoch of the declaration 
of war. The American government uniformly enter- 
tained an opposite opinion ; and, at all times, saw 
more to apprehend for the United States, from her 
maritime power, than from the territorial power of 
her enemy. The event has justified the opinion and 



MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. l'J5 

apprehension. But what the United States asked, as 
essential to their welfare, and even as beneficial to 
the allies of Great Britain, in the European war, 
Great Britain, it is manifest, might have granted, 
without impairing the resources of her own strength 
or the splendor of her own sovereignty ; for her 
orders in council have been since revoked ; not, it is 
true, as the performance of her promise to follow, in 
this respect, the example of France, since she finally 
rested the obligation of that promise upon a repeal of 
the French decrees as to all nations ; and the repeal 
was only as to the United States ; nor as an act of 
national justice towards the United States ; but sim- 
ply as an act of domestic policy, for the special ad- 
vantage of her own people. 

" The British government has also described the war 
as a war of aggrandizement and conquest on the part 
of the United States ; but where is the foundation for 
the charge ? While the American government em- 
ployed every means to dissuade the Indians, even 
those who Uved within the territory, and were sup- 
plied by the bounty of the United States from taking 
any part in the war, the proofs were irresistible that 
the enemy pursued a very different course ; and that 
every precaution would be necessary to prevent the 
effects of an offensive alliance between the British 
troops and the savages throughout the northern fron- 
tier of the United States. The military occupation 
of Upper Canada was, therefore, deemed indispen- 
sable to the safety of that frontier in the earliest 



126 MADI.-JONS ADMINISTRATION. 

movements of the war, independent of all views of 
extending the territorial boundary of the United 
States. Bat when war was declared, in resentment 
for injuries which had been suffered upon the Atlantic, 
what principle of public law, what modification of civ- 
ilized warfare, imposed upon the United States the 
duty of abstaining from the invasion of the Canadas 1 
It was there alone that the United States could place 
themselves upon an equal footing of mihtary force 
with Great Britain ; and it was there that they might 
reasonably encourage the hope of being able, in the 
prosecution of a lawful retaliation, to restrain the 
violence of the enemy, and to retort upon him the 
evils of his own injustice. The proclamations issued 
by the American commanders on entering Upper Can- 
ada, have, however, been adduced by the British 
negotiators at Ghent, as the proofs of a spirit of am- 
bition and aggrandizement on the part of their go- 
vernment. In truth, the proclamations were not only 
unauthorized and disapproved, but were infractions of 
the positive instructions which had been given for the 
conduct of the war in Canada. When the general, 
commanding the northwestern army of the United 
States, received, on the 24th of June, 1812, his first 
authority to commence offensive preparations, he was 
especially told that *he must not consider himself au- 
thorized to pledge the government to the inhabitants 
of Canada further than assurances of protection in 
their persons, property and rights.' And on the en- 
suing 1st of August, it was emphatically declared to 



MADISOXS ADMINISTRATION. 1^7 

him, * that it had become necessary that he should not 
lose sight of the instructions of the 24th of June, as 
any pledge beyond that was incompatible with tiie 
views of the government.' Such was the nature of 
the charge of American ambition and aggrandizement, 
and such the evidence to support it. 

" The conduct of the United States, from the moment 
of declaring the war, will serve, as well as their previ- 
ous conduct, to rescue them from the unjust reproaches 
of Great Britain. When war was declared, the or- 
ders in council had been maintained, with inexorable 
hostility, until a thousand American vessels and their 
cargoes had been seized and confiscated, under their 
operation ; the British minister at Washinj-rton had 
with peculiar solemnity, announced that the orders 
would not be repealed, but upon conditions, which 
the American government had not the right, nor the 
power, to fulHl ; and the European war, which had 
raged with little intermission for twenty years, threat- 
ened an indefinite c6ntinuance. Under these circum- 
stances, a repeal of the orders, and a cessation of the 
injuries which they produced, were events beyond all 
rational anticipation. It appears, however, that the 
orders, under the influence of a parliamentary inqui- 
ry into their effects upon the trade and manufactures 
of Great Britain, were provisionally repealed on the 
23d of June, 1812, a few days subsequent to the 
American declaration of war. If this repeal had been 
made known to the United States, before their resort 
to arms, the repeal would have arrested it ; and that 



128 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

cause of war being removed, the other essential cause, 
the practice of impressment, would have been the sub- 
ject of renewed negotiation, under the auspicious in- 
fluence of a partial, yet important, act of reconciha- 
tion. But the declaration of war, having announced 
the practice of impressment, as a principal cause, 
peace could only be the result of an express abandon- 
ment of the practice ; of a suspension of the prac- 
tice, for purposes of negotiation ; or of a cessation of 
actual sufferance, in consequence of a pacification in 
Europe, which would deprive Great Britain of every 
motive for continuing the practice. 

" The reluctance with which the United States had 
resorted to arms, was manifested by the steps takeii to 
arrest the progress of hostilities, and to hasten a res- 
toration of peace. On the 2Gth of June, 1812, the 
American charge d'affaires, at London, was instructed 
to make the proposal of an armistice to the British 
government, which might lead to an adjustment of all 
differences, on the single condition, in the event of the 
orders in council being repealed, that instructions 
should be issued, suspending the practice of impress- 
ment during the armistice. This proposal was soon 
followed by another, admitting, instead of positive in- 
structions, an informal understanding between the two 
governments on the subject. But both of these pro- 
posals were unhappily rejected. And when a third, 
which seemed to leave no plea for hesitation, as it re- 
quired no other preliminary than that the American 
minister, at London, should find in the British govern- 



MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 129 

ment a sincere disposition to accomodate the difference 
relative to impressment, on fair conditions, was eva- 
ded, it was obvious that neither a desire of peace nor 
a spirit of conciliation influenced the councils of Great 
Britain."* 

In followinnr the able and conclusive vindication of 
Mr. Dallas, — which could not be mutilated without 
impairing, if not altogether destroying, much of its 
beauty and force, — we have been led to deviate, in 
some degree, from strict chronological order. To re- 
turn, therefore, to the position of Mr. Madison at the 
outset of his administration : He found himself, as we 
have seen, embarrassed by altercations and disputes 
of long standing, with the two great powers of the 
world, — the one hostile in feeling as in conduct, and 
the other, though disposed to be friendly, compelled 
by the course of her adversary, to adopt measures of 
retaliation, as unjust to her ancient ally as they were 
injurious. During the administration of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, embargo had been tried in vain ; though suffer- 
ing much from the adoption of this measure, neither 
England nor France relented in anything ; and, on 
the other hand, our people who were engaged in com- 
merce, preferring to run the risk of evading the Euro- 
pean blockades, rather than to have their vessels lie 
rotting in their harbors, began to grow still more vio- 
lent in the utterance of their complaints. 

In order to alleviate, as far as was consistent with 
the preservation of the national dignity, the burdens 

*Dallas' Exposition. 
6* 



130 Madison's administration. 

which weighed so heavily, though necessary to be 
borne, upon the citizens of the eastern and Middle 
Atlantic states, the non-intercourse system was substi- 
tuted for the embargo, at the close of the session of 
Congress, in March, 1809. Trusting that this mani- 
festation of a concihatory spirit would be followed by 
the adoption of corresponding measures on the part 
of England, to whom all eyes were turned as the first 
ao-sressor in this series of outrages and insults ; but, at 
'the same time,- fearing lest, notwithstanding their de- 
sire for peace, they might be compelled to take up 
arms in defence of their rights, provision was made by 
law, prior to the termination of the session, for a spe- 
cial meeting of the next Congress, to be held on the 
22d day of May following. 

Accordingly, the members of the eleventh Congress 
assembled at the Capitol, at the time specified in the 
act ; and the House of Representatives was organi- 
zed, by the re-election of Joseph B. Varnum, a demo- 
cratic member from Massachusetts, to the office of 
Speaker. On the 23d instant, the President commu- 
nicated his message to the two houses, from which, 
and the accompanying documents, it appeared that in 
the month of April previous, an arrangement had been 
entered into with the British minister, Mr. Erskine, 
by virtue of which the commerce between England 
and t'he United States would be renewed, from and 
after the ensuing 10th day of June. 

By the repeal of the Embargo, and the substitution 
of a less obnoxious measure, a favorable opportunity 



Madison's administration. 131 

had been afforded for the renewal of negotiations. 
Acting in accordance with the spirit, though not the 
letter, of his instructions, Mr. Erskine proposed to 
make satisfaction for the attack on the Chesapeake, 
and to withdraw the orders in Council, on the 10th of 
June, upon certain preliminary conditions, which were 
promptly complied with liy the American government; 
and on the 19th of April, the President had issued his 
proclamation in conformity with this arrangement. 
This favorable termination, as it was supposed of the* 
existing difliculties, produced a most happy elTect. 
The speedy revival of commerce was now looked for, 
and peace and prosperity seemed again to smile upon 
the land. It was under such auspicious circumstances 
that ('ongress came together. The session was ne- 
cessarily brief ; and after the passage of an act adopt- 
ing the commercial laws to the new arrangement 
with Great Britain, and some few others of minor 
importance, the members again separated. 

But this calm in the political atmosphere was of 
brief duration. The British Secretary for foreign af- 
fairs, Mr. Canning, was ambitious to become in the 
cabinet what Napoleon was in the field. His fiery 
and dashing counsels prevailed ; and the proceedings 
of Mr. Erskine were wholly disavowed. The latter 
had insisted, in his dispatches to his government, that 
his deviation from the orders he had received, had 
been occasioned by a thorough conviction on his part, 
that, by a too strict adherence to the letter of his in- 
structions, he might lose " the opportunity of promo- 



132 MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

ting essentially his Majesty's interests and wishes"; but 
the pacific temper and disposition of the minister were 
not reflected in the council chamber of St. James. So 
far from this, it was determined that America should 
be treated as an ungrateful dependent ; and that every 
overture should be spurned, till she sued as a suppliant 
for what she had hitherto demanded as a right. The 
offending envoy was recalled, and another sent in his 
place, who proved to be as ignorant of the courtesies 
. of international intercourse as he was desirous of urg- 
ing on hostihties between the two countries. 

Great occasion was now given to the federal oppo- 
sition for rejoicing, and they were prompt to avail 
themselves of it. It was said that Mr. Madison and 
his cabinet were aware, at the time of entering into 
the arrangement with Mr. Erskine, that the latter 
was exceeding his instructions ; and that the whole 
proceedings were a mere trick, the object of which 
was to affect the elections. There was, in truth, not 
the least foundation for this charge ; but it operated 
for a time prejudicially to the administration. A deep- 
rooted spirit of hostiUty towards the English nation, 
growing out of the feeling excited by the impressment 
of our seamen, and the continued aggressions on oui 
commerce, was rapidly gaining ground. A portion 
of the democratic party, neither few in numbers nor 
feeble in influence, began to doubt whether the policy 
of the executive was not too lukewarm and concila- 
tory ; and the federalists, or rather, the Hamiltonian 
branch of that party, though professedly opposed to a 



Madison's ad.mimstratiox. 133 

collision with England zealously ''fanned the embers," 
and tauntingly declared that Mr. Madison could not 
be "kicked into a war." 

At first, the President doubted, whether the disa- 
vowal of the arrangement by virtue of which the or- 
ders in council were to be revoked, operated per se as 
a revival of the non-intercourse act ; but after delib- 
eration with his cabinet, the question was decided in 
the affirmative, and a second proclamation was issued, 
reciting the facts attending the suspension of the law, 
and announcing that it was again in full force. 

Irritated as were the American people by these re- 
peated acts of injustice of the British government, 
they were, in disposition at least, fully prepared for 
immediate hostilities and had the President but given 
the signal, war would at once have resulted, and that 
with the unquestioned approval of the great majority 
of his countrvmen. "Free trade and sailor's rights" 
was repeated from one extremity of the Union to the 
other ; impressment, and the violation of the neutral 
flag, were the topics of discussion at every public 
gathering ; and while old men gave utterance to their 
opinions in indignant language, the young stood by in 
silence, but with clenched hands and flashing eyes, 
and cheeks glowing with the fire of manly patriotism. 
Madison, however, was cool and sagacious, and not 
by any means disposed to precipitate the crisis which 
he foresaw, but hoped to avert. He still believed, 
that by persisting in the non-intercourse policy, Eng- 
land and France would eventually be brought to terms. 



134 Madison's administration. 

It may be, that in his sincere anxiety for peace, he 
was over cautious ; but if he erred, it was for what, 
in him, was the most praisworthy of reasons ; and 
though the impartial historian may pronounce this to 
have been the great mistake of his administration, he 
will still do justice to the purity of his motives. 

Had Mr. Madison been less favorable to the policy 
which had been pursued, there were other reasons for 
prudence and hesitation. Though a period of nearly 
thirty years had elapsed since the revolution, during 
which time the country had been comparatively at 
peace, the memorable advice of Washington to " pre- 
pare for war," had been almost if not quite disregard- 
ed. Some thing had, indeed, been done towards the 
fortification of the sea-coast, yet a great deal more 
was required before it would be placed in a respectable 
state of defence ; and, judging from the past, but Httle 
reliance could be placed on the liberality of Congress 
in making appropriations for the future, — even upon 
those members who were the loudest and most vehe- 
ment in advocating an immoderate resort to arms. Of 
gunboats there were enough ; but their fitness for the 
object for which they were designed, was already 
more than doubted. The quotas of militia detached, 
under the act of March, 1808, had been discharged 
immediately after the arrangement had been entered 
into with Mr. Erskine. Some progi'ess had been made 
in raising and organizing the additional military force 
provided for by the act of April, 1808 ; but the offi- 
cers of our httle army were little practiced in "war's 



Madison's admimstratiox. 135 

vast art," and the men, though brave and patriotic, in 
discipHne were far behind the trainbearers against 
whonn they were to tj.e opposed. Four additional 
frigates had been fitted for actual service, in pursu- 
ance of a law passed the session of 1808-9 ; yet what 
were these, in comparison with the oaken bulwarks 
of the proud mistress of the seas ! 

The geographical position of our country, also, with 
regard to one of the great powers against whom she 
had so much cause for complaint, was pecuHar. On 
the one side were the Canadas, the Colonial depen- 
dencies and possessions of England, where her troops 
were stationed and her munitions of war collected, 
inhabited by a people, one moiety of whom were firm 
in their loyalty, and the other moiety, though disposed 
to be friendly to us, prepared to manifest their predi- 
lictions only by remaining neutral. On the northwest 
and southwest, were hordes of ruthless savages, re- 
ceiving aid and encouragement, if not direct assistance, 
from British Agents and Emissaries. And on the 
south was Florida, belonging to and occupied by the 
troops of Spain ; who, inimical towards the United 
States on account of the purchase of Lousiana, and 
in close alliance with Great Britain, claimed, and had 
taken possession of a large tract on our southern bor- 
ders, between the Perdido and the Mississippi, upon 
the pretence that it was not included in the treaty of 
San Ildefonso. 

While the country was in a state of ferment and 
agitation, Mr. Jackson, the successor of Mr. Erskine, 



138 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

f 

arrived at Washington. He was instructed to state 
tlie reasons which had influenced his government in 
disavowing the acts of its forj|ier representative ; but, 
as it appeared at the outset, he had no authority to 
make any proposals with respect to the orders in 
council ; and in regard to the attack on the Chesa- 
peake, the only proposition he made, was founded on 
the inadmissible presumption, that the first step to- 
wards an adjustment was due from the United States, 
and, while omitting all reference to the officer who 
had committed this high handed act of aggression, 
still asserted the odious doctrine of impressment. The 
new envoy was either unable, or unwilling, to imitate 
the mild and concihatory conduct of his predecessor, 
and, in his correspondence with the American Secre- 
tary, intimated that the President was aware that Mr. 
Erskine had exceeded his powers, when the arrange- 
ment was entered into with him. To such a charge, 
or rather insinuation, for its author had not the man- 
liness to make it directly and without qualification, 
there could be but one answer. The minister was 
allowed to hold no further communication with the 
government to which he was accredited, and the 
American minister at London was directed to announce 
the fact to the English Monarch, and acquaint him 
with the reasons which had led to this step, at the 
same time stating that any communications would be 
readily received if made through another channel. 

Our relations with Great Britain had just assumed 
this new phase, when Congress again assembled, at its 



Madison's administration. 137 

regular session, on the 27th of November. The mem- 
bers were informed by the President, in his annua) 
message, of what had transpired during the recess : he 
also announced, that the fortifications on the maritime 
frontier were fast being completed ; that a supply of 
small arms sufficient for the public exigency would 
soon be provided ; and that the vessels-of-war had 
been fully equipped, as directed by the act of Con- 
gress. He likewise recommended such an oriraniza- 
tion of the militia as would be "best adapted to event- 
ual situations for which the United States ought to 
be prepared." In regard to the finances, he said, that 
although the current receipts, and the surplus pre- 
viously accumulated in the treasury, had enabled them 
to go through the past year without recurring to a 
loan, a deficiency for the ensuing year was to be ap- 
prehended, from the insecure condition of American 
commerce, and the consequent diminution of the pub- 
lic revenue. 

Shortly after the commencement of the session, a 
joint resolution was adopted approving of the course 
of the Executive in regard to the British minister, and 
declaring the willingness of Congress to call out the 
whole force of the nation, should it become necessary, 
to repel insults of so gross a character, and to assert 
and maintain the rights, honor, and interests of the 
United States. No action, in furtherance of the spirit 
of this resolution, was required, as, upon the repre- 
sentations of Mr. Pinkney, the American Plenipoten- 
tiary at the British court, Mr. Jackson was immedi- 



138 Madison's administration. 

ately recalled, although he was neither censured, nor 
was any apology made for his conduct. 

Congress remained in session until the 1st of May, 

1810. During this period, but few acts of general 
importance were passed. The law authorizing a de- 
tachment of one hundred thousand men from the 
militia expired by its own limitation, on the 30th of 
March, but was continued in foi-ce by another act. 
Acts were likewise passed at this session, providing 
for taking the decennial census, and for the creation 
of a loan for the payment of the public debt. In re- 
gard to our foreign relations, the legislation of Con- 
gress was characterized by the same spirit of forbear- 
ance which had hitherto governed their deliberations. 
On the 1st of May, an act was passed, known as the 
non-importation act, revoking the restrictive system, 
but excluding; British and French armed vessels from 
the waters of the United States, — and providing fur- 
ther, that if either Great Britain or France should 
revoke or modify her edicts, before the 3d of March, 

1811, and the other nation should refuse or neglect to 
do the same, the non-importation law should, at the 
expiration of three months, be revived against the 
party so otfending. This was designed to be the ulti- 
matum of the American government ; and a declara- 
tion of war against whichsoever of the two nations 
failed to comply with its terms, was to be the only 
alternative. Accordingly, Messrs. Pinkney and Arm- 
strong, the respective ministers at the courts of Great 
Britain and France, were instructed to urge the 



M\I)IS(»\S AUAIIMSTRATIOX. 139 

speedy repeal of the obnoxious orders and decrees. 

In reply to the communication of Mr. Armstrong, 
the French minister for foreign aflairs stated, in an 
official note, that the Berlin and Milan decrees were 
revoked, and would cease to have effect after the 1st 
of November ensuing, — upon the condition, however, 
that the English government should revoke their or- 
ders in council, and renounce the new principles of 
blockade which they had sought to establish, or, in 
default thereof, that the United States should cause 
their rights to be respected by Great Britain. Un- 
doubtedly, the French Emperor would, then have 
preferred a war between England and the United 
States, to a peaceable and amicable termination of the 
dispute ; but, under existing circumstances, and while 
Great Britain continued to adhere to her odious sys- 
tem of blockades, no liu'thcr concession could have 
been required of him by the American government. 
The proposition made by his minister fully complied 
with the terms of the act of May, 1810, and was 
therefore satisfactory to the Executive. 

On the receipt of General Armstrong's dispatches^ 
the President issued a proclamation dated the 2d of 
November, communicating the gratifying intelligence 
that one of the European belligerants had at length 
vielded to our demands ; and dcclarin": that the 
French decrees had been revoked, and that the non- 
intercourse law would be revived as against Great 
Britain, provided her orders in council were not re- 
pealed within three months from that date. 



140 Madison's administration. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Pinkney labored to procure from 
the British ministry a revocation or modification of 
their orders, but it was all in vain. A direct reply 
to the able and convincing arguments, and the manly 
expostulations, of the American envoy, was for a long 
time evaded ; prevarication and sophistry were, how- 
ever, of little avail ; and when he finally forced them 
to take a determined stand, their answer, in its tenor 
and effect, was, that the United States should either 
persuade or compel France to take the iniative in re- 
tracing the aggressive course which both belligerants 
had pursued, when, so far as the former was concern- 
ed. Great Britain was herself the first who should 
have made reparation. To such a proposition the 
United States could not in justice or honor accede ; 
and after months spent in fruitless negotiation, Mr. 
Pinkney formally took leave of the Prince Regent on 
the 1st day of March, 1811. 

Previous to this time, the subject of our foreign 
relations had again received the consideration of the 
American Congress. That body commenced its ses- 
sion at Washington, on the 3d of December, 1810. 
On the 5th instant, the message of the President was 
received. After reviewing the condition of the pending 
negotiations with France and Great Britain, its author 
recommended a continuance of the defensive and pre- 
cautionary arrangements, and the adoption of further 
measures for the organization and discipline of the 
militia. The finances were represented to be in a 
flattering condition ; there being a balance remaining 



Madison's administration. 141 

in the treasury, after the discharge of all liabilities, 
and the payment of the interest on the pubhc debt, 
together with a portion of the principal, of two mil- 
lions of dollars. 

One more effort was made for the settlement of the 
vexed questions in diiference with England, by the en- 
actment of a law, near the close of the session — on 
the 2d of March, 1811 — providing that, if Great Britain 
should revoke or modify her edicts, so that they ceased 
to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, 
the President should be authorized to declare the same 
by proclamation, and, from the date thereof, the pro- 
visions of the amended non-intercourse law should no 
longer remain in force. 

By the terms of its charter, the legal existence of 
the old Bank of the United States was to cease on 
the 4lli day of March, 1811. At the first session of 
the 10th Congress, memorials had been presented in 
both houses for a renewal of the charter. No definite 
action was had thereupon in the House of Represent- 
atives, but the Senate memorial was referred to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, to report upon the same 
at the ensuing session of Congress. The report of 
Mr. Gallatin was made on the 2d of March, 1809. 
He stated that the affairs of the bank appeared to 
have been wisely and skillfully managed ; and that, in 
his opinion, although there were some weighty objec- 
tions to the continuance of the institution, the public 
advantages to be derived from the renewal of the 
charter would more than counterbalance them. He 



142 Madison's administration. 

also specified the conditions which, he thought, should 
be attached to the renewal. This session, the special 
session following, and the first session of the 11th 
Congress, passed off, however, without any final action 
on the subject. 

On the 18th of December, 1810, a petition of the 
stockholders of the bank, praying for the renewal of 
the charter of incorporation, was presented in the 
House of Representatives, and referred to a select 
committee, of which Mr. Burwell, of Virginia, was 
chairman. The committee reported a bill providing 
for the renewal, on the 4th of January, 1811, which 
was taken up on the 16th instant, when a motion was 
made by Mr. Burwell, in committee of the whole, to 
strike out the first section. The motion prevailed by 
a vote of 59 to 46 ; and on the 24th instant, after an 
animated debate, the subject was indefinitely post- 
poned, by a vote of 65 to 64. A number of able 
speeches were made in the progress of the discussion; 
the democratic speakers, in the main, treating the 
subject as a party one, and laying great stress on the 
arguments of Mr. Madison, contained in his speech 
delivered in 1791 against the original act of incorpo- 
ration. The principal speakers opposed to the renewal 
of the charter were William A. Burwell, and John 
W. Eppes — the latter the son-in-law of Mr. Jeffer- 
son — of Virginia ; Peter B. Porter, of New York ; 
Adam Seybert, of Pennsylvania ; Robert Wright, of 
Maryland ; Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina ; and 
Wilham T. Barry, and Joseph Desha, of Kentucky. 



Madison's admimstration. I43 

On the other side were WiJham Findlev, of Pennsvl- 
vania ; and Jonathan Fisk, of New York ; Benjamin 
Tahnadge, of Connecticut ; Phihp B. Key, of Mary- 
land ; David S. Garland, of \'irginia ; and Samuel 
McKee, of Kentucky. 

A similar petition presented in the Senate, shared a 
like fate. It was referred to a committee of which 
William H. Crawford, of Georgia, was chairman ; 
who, having fortified themselves with another report 
from Mr. Gallatin in favor of the renewal of the 
charter, introduced a bill providing therefor on the 
5th day of February. A warm debate arose on a 
motion made by Mr. Anderson, of Tennessee, to strike 
out the first section. Mr. Crawford ably defended 
Ihe constitutionality and expediency of the measure, 
and indignantly repelled the charge of apostacy made 
against him by other democratic Senators. He was 
warmly supported by Richard Brent, of Virginia, and 
John Pope, of Kentucky, belonging to the same party; 
and by James Lloyd and Timothy Pickering, of 
Massachusetts, and John Taylor, of South Carolina. 
The ablest speeches in opposition to the re-charter 
were made by WiUiam B. Giles, of Virginia ; Henry 
Clay of Kentucky ; and Samuel Smith, of Maryland. 
The question was taken on the 20th of February, and 
resulted in a tie vote, of 17 to 17 ; Messrs. I-loyd, 
Pickering, an.d Brent, voting, in opposition to the 
instructions of the legislatures of Massachusetts and 
A'irginia, in favor of the bill. The Senate being thus 
equally divided, the Vice President, George Clinton, 



144 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

gave the casting vote for striking out the first section 
of the bill. 

Great efforts had been made by the friends and 
agents of the bank to procure a renewal of the char- 
ter, and after the final rejection of the bill, propositions 
were introduced into both houses of Congress, extend- 
ing the provisions of the existing charter, for the 
purpose of enabling it to close up its affairs. Mr. 
Clay, as the chairman of the select committee in the 
Senate, to whom the proposition was referred, and 
Mr. P. B. Porter, at the head of a similar committee 
in the House of Representatives, reported against 
even this temporary renewal of the charter. It ex- 
pired, therefore, by its own limitation, on the 4th of 
March. 

On the 27 th of February, Joel Barlow, of Con- 
necticut, was appointed minister to France, in place 
of General Armstrong, who had been recalled, at his 
own request, the preceding autumn. After the return 
of Mr. Pinkney, the United States were represented 
at the English court by Jonathan Russell, of Rhode 
Island, as charge (V affairs. 

A collision, which took place on the 16th of May, 
between two vessels of war, belonging, respectively, 
to Great Britain and the United States, very much 
heightened the exasperation of feeling manifested by 
a great majority of the American people, and aroused 
their patriotism to the highest pitch. — The frigate 
President, under the command of Commodore Rodg- 
ers, while peaceably cruizing on the American coast, 



MADISON S AJL».MlMSTRATIO.\. 145 

was unexpectedly fired upon by the British sloop of 
war, Little Belt. The fire was instantly returned 
with spirit and effect. Thirty two men were either 
killed, on wounded, or board the sloop, by the Ameri- 
can fire. Explanations were then made, — the British 
commander asserting that he had labored under a 
mistake, though it is quite probable he designed to 
perpetrate a similar outrage with that committed on 
the Chesapeake, — whereupon, the sloop, having been 
sufficiently punished for her temerity, was permitted 
to return to her harbor. 

Several months elapsed after the recall of Mr. 
Jackson, before the English government dispatched a 
new mmister to the United States. Mr. Foster was 
sent in that capacity, in the summer of 1811, and 
through him, in the month of November following, 
tardy reparation was at length made for the attack on 
the Chesapeake. 

In the winter of 1810—11, great numbers of Indian 
warriors visited the military posts in the Canadas, and 
obtained liberal supplies of arms and ammunition. It 
can scarcely be doubted that they were, at this time, 
prompted, or excited to hostilities, by British emissa- 
ries and agents, as, early in the spring they com- 
menced the work of devastation and butchery on the 
northwestern frontier. An ineffectual attempt at 
pacification having been made, in the summer, by 
Governor Harrison, of Indiana territory, he marched 
upon the towns of the savages lying on the upper 
waters of the Wabasn,'in October, with a large force. 



146 SIADISON S ADMI.MSTRATION. 

On the morning of the 7th of Xovember he was 
attacked bv the enemy, while his men lav in bivouac, 
near the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash ; 
but he succeeded in repulsing them with great loss, 
and subsequently destroyed their villages, and laid 
waste the surroundhig district. This timely blow 
intimidated the Indians, and frustrated any ulterior 
plans they may have had in view, in anticipation of a 
war with England. 

The Congressional elections held in 1810-11, had 
resulted favorably to the administration, although 
there were symptoms of disaffection manifested in 
the democratic party in some portions of the Union, 
particularly in the State of Xew^ York, where the 
name of Dewitt Clinton was already mentioned in 
connection with the Presidency, by those of his polit- 
ical friends who were dissatisfied with the conciliatory 
policy of Mr. Madison, or who were really opposed 
to a war in the then comparatively defenceless state 
of the country. The 12th Congress assembled on the 
4th of November, in pursuance of an executive proc- 
lamation. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was chosen 
speaker of the House. This gentleman had now be- 
come one of the most prominent supporters of the 
administration in Congress ; and he was ablv sus- 
tained in the body over which he presided, by James 
Fisk, of Vermont ; Peter B. Porter and Samuel L. 
Mitchell, of Xew York ; Adam Seybert, of Pennsyl- 
vania ; Robert Wright, of Maryland ; Hugh jVelson, 
of Virginia ; Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina ; 



Madison's administration. 147 

John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, and William 
Lowndes, of South Carolina ; William W. Bibb, and 
George M. Troup, of Georgia ; Felix Grundy, of 
Tennessee ; and William P. Duval, of Kentucky. On 
the opposition side, were Josiah Quincy, of Massa- 
chusetts ; and Timothy Pitkin, and Benjamin Tal- 
madge, of Connecticut. The federal leaders in the 
Senate were James Lloyd, of Massachusetts ; and 
James A. Bayard, of Delaware. The most prominent 
democratic Senators were Samuel Smith, of Mary- 
land ; William B. Giles, of Virginia ; William H. 
Crawford, of Georgia ; George W. Campbell, of 
Tennessee ; and George M. Bibb, of Kentucky. 

It was evident from the tone of the President's 
message, that all hope of conciliation was nearly 
abandoned. He stated that the period had arrived 
which claimed from the legislative guardians of the 
national rights, the amplest provisions for their main- 
tenance, and earnestly invoked them to put the coun- 
try "into an armor and an attitude demanded by the 
crisis." The finances were said to be in a favorable 
condition. The receipts into the treasury during the 
year had been over thirteen and a half millions of 
dollars, which had enabled the government to meet 
its current liabilities, including interest ; and to cancel 
more than five millions of dollars of the public debt. 

On the 25th day of November, James Monroe, of 
Virginia, was appointed Secretaay of State, in place 
of Mr. Smith, who had previously resigned ; and in 
the month of December, following, William Pinkney, 



148 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

of Maryland, late minister to Great Britain, was ap- 
pointed attorney general, to fill the vacancy occasioned 
by the resignation of Mr. Rodney. 

A bolder and more defiant tone was now assumed 
by the democratic members of Congress, particularly 
by those from the southern and western states. The 
inactivity and indecision which had characterized the 
policy of the dominant party in former years were 
laid aside ; and warlike measures of the most decided 
stamp were promptly adopted. Bills were passed at 
this session, providing for the enlistment of twenty 
thousand men in the regular army, for repairing and 
equipping the frigates in ordinary and building new 
vessels, and authorizing the President to accept the 
services of fifty thousand volunteers, and to require 
of the executives of the several states and territories 
to hold their respective quotas of one hundred thous- 
and men, fully organised, armed and equipped, in read- 
iness to march at a moment's warning. Funds were 
also appropriated to enable the Executive to carry 
these provisions into ettect. 

It was with some reluctance, in view of the exposed 
condition of the country, and the lack of means for 
carrying on a war with one of the first powers in the 
world, that Mr Madison acquiesced in these measures 
though he saw their necessity. While he hesitated, he 
was waited upon by several of the leading democratic 
members, who assured him that the popular feeling was 
setting strongly in favour of a war ; that the friends 
of Mr Clinton were taking advantage of his timidity; 



Madison's administration. 149 

and that if he desired to sustain himself, it was ne- 
cessary for him to take a bold and determined stand. 
Mr. Madison was by no means averse to the war, 
though a man of peace in principle and in practice ;' 
but he feared that Congress would either be unable or 
unwilling to provide him with the necessary supplies 
of money and men, to carry it on to a successful issue. 
Furthermore, his cabinet officers, though not undis- 
tinguished for talent, were hardly fitted for the emer- 
gency ; and some diversity of opinion likewise existed 
among them. Mr. Gallatin was openly and avowedly 
opposed to a war, and Mr. Pinkney believed it pre- 
nnature to hurry on hostilities while so little prepara- 
tion had been made. Mr. Granger was not opposed 
to a war, but was unfriendly to Mr. Madison, and 
secretly operating, in connection with Obadiah Ger- 
man, one of the democratic senators from New York, 
for the elevation of Mr. Clinton to the Presidency! ' 
Mr. Monroe was the only military man in the cabinet, 
and his experience had been limited. The secretaries 
of war and the navy were estimable men, but not at 
all calculated for directing the operations of armies 
and fleets in a state of war. As for the President 
himself, he did not profess to have any acquaintance 
with military matters. 

On the 9th of March, 1812, the President sent a 
special message communicating certain documents, 
being the revelations of one John Henry, from which 
It appeared that he had been selected as a confidential 
agent, by the governor of Canada, to visit the New 



150 Madison's administration. 

England States, and sound the disaffected federal pol- 
iticians in that quarter, in regard to forming a con- 
nection with Great Britain. The sum of fifty thous- 
and dollars was paid out of the secret service fund 
for these disclosures, but they do not appear to have 
been a very desirable bargain. The British minister 
at Washington solemnly disclaimed any knowledge on 
his part touching the matter, though, even admitting 
this, it was never shown that the Canadian governor 
did not dispatch Henry to the United States for the 
purpose represented. Still, nothing appeared to cast 
suspicion on any one, even the most bitter federalists 
of the Eastern States, of having had any treasonable 
intercourse or understanding with him. 

In the meantime, the French Emperor, after much 
delay and prevarication, — in which he showed a spirit, 
and manifested feelings, towards his " American pre- 
fect," as the federalists termed Mr. Madison, far from 
being of that friendly character which they would 
have had the public infer, — had finally, on the 28th 
of April, 1811, definitely revoked 'the Berlin and 
Milan decrees, to date from November 1st, 1810, 
though it was intimated that no indemnification would 
be made for spoliations committed subsequent to that 
date. A powerful eftbrt had also been made in the 
British parliament, by the Marquis of Lansdowne and 
Mr. Brougham, at the instigation of the merchants 
and manufacturers of England, whose business was 
rapidly declining, to procure the repeal of the orders 
in council. The movement was strongly resisted by 



Madison's administration. 151 

the ministers, who declared, with the utmost arrogance 
and assurance, that England could not deviate I'rom 
her course, nor listen to the petty grievances of neu- 
tral nations, when her rights and interests were at 
stake. Previous to this time, Mr. Russell, the Amer- 
ican charge cf affairs, had informed Mr. Monroe, in a 
dispatch dated the 14th of February, 1812, that he 
could discover no evidence of an intention, on the part 
of tlic British government, to repeal their orders ; 
whereupon, the President, in a special confidential 
message, on the 1st of April, recommended an Em- 
bargo on all vessels then in port, and thereafter arriv- 
ing, for the period of sixty days ; and on the 4th in- 
stant. Congress pessed a law in conformity with such 
recommendation. In a subsequent dispatch, dated the 
4th of March, 1812, communicating the substance of 
the discussions in parliament, Mr. Russell remarked, 
at its close, " I no longer entertain a hope that we can 
honorably avoid war." 

By an act of Congress, passed on the 8th day of 
April, the territory of Lousiana was admitted into the 
Union as a state, or rather the southern portion of it, 
and the name of Missouri territory was given to the 
remaining portion. 

George CHnton, the venerable Vice President, for 
so many years the leader of the republican party in 
the State of New York, died at Washington, on the 
20th of April, at the age of seventy-three. His place 
as presiding otiicer of the Senate had been previously 



X52 MADISOM S ADMINISTRATIOIV. 

filled by the election of William H. Crawford as 
president j9ro. tern. 

Mr. Russell's prophetic anticipation proved to be 
correct. On the 30th of May, 1812, Mr. Foster 
addressed a lengthy letter to Mr. Monroe, reviewing 
the vv'hole controversy betw^een Great Britain and the 
United States ; defending the course of the former in 
regard to the blockades and orders in council ; and 
closing with tiie explicit assurance, that the same 
course would be steadily pursued, while France con- 
tinued to maintain and act upon the principles she had 
done. This was appropriately regai'ded as the final 
answer of Great Britain to the urgent and often re- 
peated remonstrances of the American government : — 
she would not be content with the repeal of the French 
decrees, so far as they affected the United States, but 
her measures should not be relinquished, till such re- 
peal took effect as to all neutral nations. The decree 
of the French Emperor, of the 28th of April, 1811, 
before alluded to, was not known to be in existence, 
at this time, by the parties to the correspondence, as 
it had long been kept secret, though it had been exhib- 
ited to Mr. Barlow, the American minister at the 
French court, a few days previous. Had this decree 
been known, however, it is not probable that the in- 
structions of Lord Castlereah, under which Mr. Fos- 
ter acted, would have been different, inasmuch as the 
policy of the existing ministry was not eventually 
changed, till a revolution was threatened in the man- 
ufacturing districts of England. 



MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 153 

It now became necessary to adopt some decisive 
measures looking to the maintenance of our rights as 
a free people, and the vindication of the national 
honor. Great Britain had, after years of delay and 
negotiation, emphatically and authoritively announced, 
that she would not abandon her position : if France 
could be injured, in the least, by her orders and block- 
ades, she cared not though that injury was aggra- 
vated, in a tenfold degree, to other, and neutral 
nations. 

President Madison did not hesitate at this critical 
junction. On the 1st day of June, he transmitted a 
confidential message to Congress, in which, though 
he did not withhold just and deserved censure from 
France, he commented, in strong and eloquent lan- 
guage, upon the long series of outrages and insults 
committed by the government of Great Britain, or 
under its auspices. In concluding his able review of 
the origin, progress, and development, of this system 
of aggressions, he said : 

"Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities 
which have been heaped on our country ; and such 
the crisis which its unexampled forbearance and con- 
ciliatory efforts have not been able to avert. It might 
at least have been expected that an enlightened na- 
tion, if less urged by moral obligations or invited by 
friendly disposition on the part of the United States, 
would have found, in its true interest alone, a sufficient 
motive to respect their rights and their tranquility on 

the high seas ; that an enlarged policy would have 

7* 



154 MABISOX 8 ADMLNISTBATIOX. 

favored that free and general circulation of commerce 
in which the British nation is at all times interested, 
and which in times of war is the best alleviation of its 
calamities to herself, as well as to other belligerents ; 
and more especially, that the British cabinet would 
not, for the sake of a precarious and surreptitious in- 
tercourse with hostile markets, have persevered in a 
course of measures which necessarily put at hazard 
the invaluable market of a great and growing coun- 
try, disposed to cultivate the mutual advantages of an 
active commerce. 

" Other counsels have prevailed. Our moderation 
and concdiation have had no other effect than to en- 
courage perseverance and to enlarge pretensions. We 
behold our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of 
lawless violence, committed on the great and common 
highwav of nations, even within si^ht of the country 
which owes them protection. We behold our vessels, 
freighted with the products of our soil and industrv, 
or returning ■with the honest proceeds of them, wrest- 
ed from their lawful destinations, confiscated by prize 
courts, no longer the organs of pubUc law, but the 
instruments of arbitrary edicts, and their unfortunate 
crews dispersed and lost, or forced or inveigled in 
British ports into British fleets, while arguments are 
employed in support of these aggressions, which have 
no foundation but in a principle equal] v supporting a 
claim to regulate our external commerce in all cases 
whatsoever. 

" We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain, 



MADISO.VS ADMIMSTRATIOV. ] 55 

a state of war against the United States ; and on the 
side of the United States, a state of peace toward 
Great Britain. 

" Whether the United States shall continue passive 
under these progressive usurpations and accumulatinff 
wrongs, or, opposing force to force, in defence of their 
national rights, shall commit a just cause into the 
hands of the Almighty Disposer of events, avoiding 
all connections which might entangle it in the contests 
or views of other powers, and preserving a constant 
readiness to concur in an honorable rcestablishment 
of peace and friendship, is a solemn question, which 
the constitution wisely confides to the ' ive de- 

partment of the government. In recom:i.e:iU;ng it to 
their early deliberations, I am happy in the assurance 
that the decision will be worthy the enlightened and 
patriotic councils of a virtuous, free, and a powerful 
nation.'' 

The message was immediately referred, in the 
House of Representatives, to the committee on foreign 
relations, who reported, on the 3rd day of June, a 
manifesto, setting forth the reasons which required, in 
their opinion, an immediate appeal to arms. These 
were : — the impressment of American seamen ; the 
British doctrine and system of blockade ; and the 
continuance of the orders in council The delibera- 
tKMis of CkmgTess on this important question were 
"conducted with closed doors. At first it was doaht- 
ful, whether a majority of the members could be in- 
duced to vote for a declaration of war. A biU drawn 



156 Madison's administration. 

up for that purpose, by Mr. Pinkney, the attorney 
general — in brief, terse, and sententious language — 
was reported, however, by Mr. Calhoun, from the 
committee on foreign relations. The act contained 
but a single section, and, exclusive of its title, was in 
these words : 

" Be it enacted, S^c, That war be, and the same is 
hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies 
thereof, and the United States of America and their 
territories ; and the President of the United States is 
hereby authorized to use the whole land and naval 
force of the United States to carry the same into 
etfect, and to issue to private armed vessels of the 
United States commissions, or letters of n)arque and 
general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, 
and under the seal of the United States, against the 
government of the said United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland, and the subjects thereof." 

Notwithstanding the federal members opposed the 
passage of the bill, it was rapidly pushed through the 
forms of legislation, and, by a final vote of 79 to 49, 
sent to the Senate for concurrence. It here encoun- 
tered a still more violent opposition. The democratic 
friends of Dewitt Clinton united with the federalists 
in the attempt to defeat the bill ; and Mr. German, 
one of the New York senators, made a speech as well 
as voted against it. It finally passed, however, by a 
vote of 19 to 13, on the 17th of July, and, on the 18th 
instant was signed and approved by the President. 



Madison's administration. 157 

On the following day he issued his proclamation, an- 
nouncing the existance of war and the causes which 
had led to it, as set forth in the manifesto of the com- 
mittee on foreign relations, and calling upon the 
people of the United States to sustain the public au- 
thorities in their efforts to obtain a speedy, a just, and 
an honorable peace. 

" The members from New Hampshire, most of 
those from Massachusetts, then including Maine, those 
of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and 
Delaware, with several from New York, some from 
Virginia and North Carolina, one from Pennsylvania, 
and three from Maryland opposed the war. The 
members from Vermont, some from New York, all 
but one from Pennsylvania, most from Maryland, 
Virginia, and North Carolina, all from South Carohna, 
Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Louisiana, 
supported it."* Mr. CHnton's friends, numbering 
among them a majority of the democratic delegation 
from New York, for the most part insisted that they 
were not opposed to the war, but they deemed the 
declaration at this time premature. Some of them 
afterwards joined what was called the peace party, 
composed of federalists and disaffected democrats ; 
but most of the seceders eventually returned to their 
" first love." 

Pursuant to a custom which many now began to 
condemn, a caucus of eighty-two republican members 

* Ingersoll'a History of the war. 



158 Madison's administration. 

of Congress had been held on the 18th day of May, 
at which Mr. Madison was unanimously nominated 
for re-election. John Langdon, of New Hampshire, 
was put in nomination for the Vice Presidency, but 
he declined on account of his advanced age ; where- 
upon, the nomination was conferred on Elbridge 
Gerry, at a subsequent meeting held on the 8th of 
June. Dewitt Clinton was nominated as an opposing 
candidate for the Presidency, on the 29th of May, 
by a majority of the republican members of the New 
York legislature, but against the urgent remonstrances 
of the minority. The federalists took no steps to- 
wards bringing forward a candidate, till the month of 
September, when they held a convention in the city 
of New York, at which they resolved to support Mr. 
Clinton, in order, as they affirmed, to defeat Mr. 
Madison. Jared Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, was se- 
lected as their candidate for Vice President. 

On the 26th of June, an act was passed by Congress 
respecting letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods. 
Among the otheF important acts passed at this session, 
were those prohibiting the exportation of goods, 
wares, or merchandize, during the continuance of 
the embargo ; authorizing the establishment of a gen- 
eral land office ; providing for the survey of the bounty 
lands ; authorizing the issue of treasury notes to the 
amount of five millions of dollars ; imposing one hun- 
dred per cent, additional duties on imports ; and pro- 
viding for the apportionment of representatives in 
accordance with the census of 1810. The session 



Madison's administration. 159 

terminated on the 6th of July ; Congress having 
previously adopted a resolution requesting the Presi- 
dent to recommend a day of public humiliation and 
prayer, to be observed, by the people of the United 
States, in oflering up supplications to Almighty God 
for the safety and welfare of the states, his blessing 
on their arms, and the speedy restoration of peace. 
The third Thursday in August was accordingly selected 
by the Executive, and it was generally observed. 

Party spirit and party feeling ran high throughout 
the Union, and the declaration of war was very dif- 
ferently received in different sections of the Union. 
In the city of Boston, in full view of the old Temple of 
Liberty, the flags of the shipping were hoisted at half 
mast, in token of mourning ; while at Baltimore, a 
federal editor was mobbed, his office in great part de- 
molished, one of his friends killed, and he, with others, 
including Henry Lee, a distinguished officer of the 
revolution, but a most bitter and vindictive federal 
partisan, seriously injured, for having the hardihood 
to utter his sentiments through the columns of his 
paper. In the eastern states the opposition to the 
war was marked and virulent. Every one who dared 
to speak in defence of the administration, was de- 
nounced in the most unmeasured terms, and curses 
and anathemas were liberally hurled from the pulpit on 
the heads of all those who aided, directly or indi- 
rectly, in carrying on the war. In the middle and 
southern states, public opinion was divided, though a 
large majority aporoved the measures adopted by 



L 



160 Madison's administration. 

Congress. But in the west there was only one senti 
jnent : — love of country sparkled in every eye, and 
animated every heart. The importing merchants, 
the lawyers in the principal cities, some planters, and 
the clergy for the most part, were numbered in the 
ranks of the opposition ; and the war found its most 
ardent and enthusiastic advoates, among the farmers 
and planters, the mechanics, the mariners, and the 
laboring men. 

Most of the prominent officers of the revolution 
were either dead or superannuated, and in making his 
selections for the leaders of the forces about to take 
the field, Mr. Madison naturally preferred, as he 
might have felt himself compelled to do, those who 
had occupied subordinate positions in the war of inde- 
pendence. He at first designed to place Henry Clay 
at the head of the army. That gentleman was not a 
soldier by profession or education, indeed knew but 
httle of the miUtary art ; yet he had genius, talents, 
force, decision, energy. These were needed at that 
crisis, and had the President followed his own coun- 
sel, in all probabihty, the disasters of 1812 and 1813 
would not have been witnessed. Mr. Gallatin, though 
not very friendly to Mr. Clay, concurred, with the 
President in opinion ; but others thought, or affected 
to think, that the eloquent Kentuckian could not be 
spared from the House of Representatives. Mr. Mad- 
ison allowed himself to be overruled, and appointed 
Henry Dearborn, a major in the revolution, and sec- 
retary of war during the administration of Jefferson, 



Madison's administration. 161 

the senior major general of the army. Under him 
were Major Generals James Wilkinson, of Maryland, 
and Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, then belong- 
ing to the regular army ; and Major Generals William 
Hull, also governor of Michigan territory, and Thomas 
Pinckney, of South Carolina, both appointed by Pres- 
ident Madison. Mr. Pinckney was a prominent fed- 
eralist, but a man of tried and sterhng patriotism, who 
never allowed the ties of party to move him from the 
faithful discharge of his duty to his country. 

In anticipation of hostilities, a large additional force 
had been placed under the command of General Hull, 
in order that he might be enabled, at the very outset, 
to cut off the communication between the North wes- 
tern Indians and the British posts in the Canadas. 
This design was prevented, in part, by the remissness 
of the war department or its messengers, in convey- 
ing the intelhgenco of the declaration of war to the 
frontier posts ; — the first intimation of the fact receiv- 
ed by the commanding officer at Mackinaw, being a 
summons to surrender to a large British force that 
suddenly appeared before the fort on the 4th of Au- 
gust, with which he was obliged to comply ; and it 
was completely frustrated by the cowardice, or, at 
least, the indecision, of General Hull, who invaded 
Canada in July, but subsequently retired to Detroit, 
and, on the 17th of August, surrendered the post, with 
his whole force, to an inferior British army command- 
ed by General Brock. 

Immediately after the declaration of war, a project 



162 Madison's administration. 

was laid before the war department for the capture 
of Hahfax, the principal naval depot of the enemy, 
and, indeed, the only one of any importance, on this 
side the Atlantic. Mr. Madison, ignorant as he was 
of military matters, relied, perhaps too much, on his 
secretary. Doctor Eustis, who, though possessing 
many estimable qualities, lacked the spirit and energy 
necessary at such a crisis. The project was not 
deemed feasible, though this was certainly a gross er- 
ror, inasmuch as the declaration took the English gov- 
ernment, and its representatives and officers every- 
where, with surprise ; and a mistake, equally preju- 
dicial in its results, was committed by General Dear- 
born, then commanding on the northern frontier, in 
consenting to an armistice with Sir George Prevost, 
governor general of Canada, suspending all military 
operations till the President's pleasure should be ascer- 
tained. This armistice was entered into in July, and, 
by its terms, the force under General Hull, was 
expressly excepted. President Madison promptly 
refused to confirm the arrangement ; but it was too 
late to avert the fatal consequences. The conclusion 
of the armistice left Sir George Prevost at liberty to 
dispatch a large force to Maiden and its vicinity, 
which movement was speedily followed, as he may 
have foreseen, by the surrender of Hull. 

Disasters like these could not be corrected, yet 
they were compensated, in some measure, by the 
brillant achievements of our gallant navy. On the 
18th of August, the Constitution, Captain Hull, 



Madison's ad.mimstratiox. 163 

captured tlie British frigate Guerriere, and on the 
17th of October, the brig FroHc surrendered to the 
American sloop-of-war Wasp, commanded by Captain 
Jones. These successes were followed by the sur- 
render of the British frigate Macedonian to the United 
States, Captain Decatur, on the 25th of October, and 
the capture and destruction of the Java, off San Sal- 
vador by the Constitution, then under the command 
of Commodore Bainbridgc, on the 30th of December. 

Early in the autumn of 1812, a considerable force, 
of regulars and volunteers, was assembled on the Ni- 
agara frontier, under General Van Rennselacr, of the 
New York militia ; and in the month of October, 
another unsuccessful attempt at the invasion of Cana- 
da was made in this quarter, with the loss of over one 
thousand men, killed, wounded, and prisoners. When 
the year closed, therefore, the reverses sustained by 
the army contrasted sadly with the glorious victories 
achieved by our little navy. During the two prece- 
ding administrations, the democrats, as a party, had 
opposed the augmentation of the naval establishment; 
but now that its practical utility and importance had 
been so signally mamfested, they cordially united with 
the federalists in its laudation, and gave their support 
to the various propositions for its increase and sup- 
port. 

Meanwhile, the efforts of the merchants and manu- 
facturers of England, to procure a repeal of the or- 
ders in council, had been attended with success. The 
repeal was made on the 23d day of June ; but the 



164 Madison's administration. 

declaration of war had already been promulgated to 
the world; and although this step, if taken but one month 
previous, would undoubtedly have prevented a collis- 
ion, there were other questions, which, though of mi- 
nor importance, now that a resort to arms had been 
made, must, nece-ssarily be first disposed of, before 
hostilities could cease. On the 26th of June, Mr. 
Monroe informed the American charge, Mr. Russell, 
of the declaration of war ; and at the same time au- 
thorised him to propose an armistice to the British 
government, conditioned, in the event of the repeal of 
the orders in council, that instructions should be issued 
suspending the practice of impressment during its con- 
tinuance ; and on the 27th of July, Mr. Russell was 
further empowered to consent to an informal under- 
standing on the subject. It was also proposed, that 
an act of Congress should be passed, excluding British 
seamen, and natives of Great Britain, from American 
vessels, provided that a similar step should be taken by 
the British government. 

Both these amicable overtures were contemptuous- 
ly rejected by the British ministrv, whereupon, Mr. 
Russell demanded his passports, and left England. 
Admiral Warren, the commander of the British naval 
force operating on the American coast, arrived at 
Halifax, however, in the month of September; and, 
on the 30th inst., he addressed a note to the Secreta- 
ry of State, proposing, by authority of his govern- 
ment, the immediate cessation of hostilities, as pre- 
liminary to an arrangement for the revocation of the 



Madison's administratiox. 165 

laws interdicting British commerce and vessels of war 
from entering the harbors and waters of the United 
States. He added, nevertheless, that, if such revoca- 
tion was not promptly made, the orders in council 
would be revived and rigidly enforced. 

Mr. Monroe replied, on the 27th of October, in a 
most friendly tone, consenting, without hesitation to a 
provisional accommodation, but with the understand- 
ing that impressment should be suspended. The war 
on the continent was now growing more earnest and 
exciting, and Great Britain was required to put forth 
all her exertions to maintain her pretensions to the 
maritime supremacy in the world. She could not 
have the hardihood to insist upon continuing the prac- 
tice of impressment, as a right ; but she wanted sail- 
ors to man her vessels, and she would take them. 
While such a disposition reigned in her councils, it 
was not surprising that this attempt at negotiation, 
like all former ones, proved entirely fruitless. 

The presidential contest was unusually animated in 
the eastern, and in some of the middle states ; but in 
the south and west, only a feeble opposition was of- 
fered to the administration electoral tickets. Mr. 
Madison received 128 electoral votes and Mr. Gerry 
131 ; Mr. Clinton received 89, including the vote of 
New York, where he was supported by a great por- 
tion of the democratic party, and Mr. Ingersoll, 86. 
The federalists gained a number of members for the 
13th Congress, — being successful in electing twenty 
out of thirty representatives, from New York, in 



166 Madison's administration. 

consequence of the divisions among the democrats in 
that State. 

Congress re-assembled, for the short session, on the 
2d day of November. The president made no attempt 
in his message to conceal the disasters experienced on 
the Canadian frontier. After referring to these in 
appropriate terms, and calhng attention to the grati- 
fying resuhs of the naval w^arfare, he invoked Con- 
gress to pass all needful laws, and to make, with 
promptitude, the necessary appropriations for the sup- 
port of the army and navy, and for fortifications and 
works of defence, in order that the republic might be 
prepared, under all circumstances, to assert and main- 
tain her rights and her dignity. He also adverted to 
the want of patriotism evinced by the respective gov- 
ernors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, in their re- 
fusal to furnish the required detachments of militia 
for the defence of the maritime frontier. In rcirard 
to the finances he stated that the I'eceipts into the 
treasury, during the year ending on the 30th of Sep- 
tember previous, had exceeded sixteen and a half mil- 
lions of dollars, including the moneys received on ac- 
count of loans authorized by Congress. 

The session continued until the 3d of March, 1813, 
when the terms of members expired. Various laws 
were enacted relating to the army and navy, and pro- 
viding for the means requisite to carry on the war. 
Four ships of the lincj six frigates, and six sloops of 
war, were authorized to be constructed. On the 8th 
of February a law was passed, providing for a loan 



MAUISO.x's Ar.MIMSTRATION. 167 

of sixteen millions of dollars ; and authority was sub- 
sequently given to issue five millions in treasurj' notes, 
making altogether, including the loan of eleven mil- 
lions authorized by the act of March 14th, 1812, and 
the five millions of treasury notes issued by the act 
of the 30th of June in the same year, the gross sum 
of thirty seven millions of dollars borrowed by this 
Congress for the prosecution of hostilities, without 
providing for the redemption of the debt, by the im- 
position of additional taxes, as desired by Mr. Cheves, 
chairman of the committee of ways and means, and 
other proper advocates of the war. The loan of six- 
teen millions was promptly taken, on the most favora- 
ble terms : seven millions of the sum were subscribed 
by Stephen Girard and David Parish, and two millions 
by John Jacob Astor, all three of whom were adop- 
ted citizens ; and the remaining seven millions were 
taken by banks and individuals, mostly in Philadelphia 
and New York. The federalists exerted themselves, 
for the most part successfully, to prevent any portion 
of the loan from being taken in the New England 
States. 

Laws were likewise passed at this session for the 
increase of the army, and its more eftective organiza- ~ 
tion ; and for the encouragement of vaccination, 
generally, among the people, in order to prevent the 
ravages of small pox in the army. 

The olive branch of peace was again tendered to 
Great Britain, by the passage of an act prohibiting the 
employment of any seamen, other than citizens of the 



1G8 MADISON^S ADMINISTRATION. 

United States, or native persons of color, on board 
the public or private armed vessels of the United 
States, after the close of the war. 

Among the other bills passed was one giving the 
president the power of retaliation for any violation of 
the usages of civilized warfare committed by British 
officers or their Indian coadjutors. A law was also 
enacted remitting the forfeiture incurred by American 
merchants, who, during the continuance of the non- 
importation act, had accumulated a large amount of 
property abroad, and when they found war to be in- 
evitable, had ordered it to be brought home. Mr- 
Gallatin proposed to remit the forfeiture, but insisted, 
as a consideration therefor, that the owners should 
loan the government an amount equal to the value of 
the property. He was sustained by a majority of the 
democratic members, but the bill finally passed, by a 
vote of 64 to 61. 

During the winter several changes took place in the 
cabinet. Numerous complaints had been made in re- 
gard to the unfitness or inefficiency of the Secretaries 
of the war and navy departments, in consequence of 
which they sent in their resignations. These were 
accepted ; and on the 12th of January, 1813, William 
Jones, of Pennsylvania, recently of the navy, was 
appointed in the place of Mr. Hamilton. On the 19th 
instant, General Armstrong, late minister to France, 
and at that time a brigadier general in the regular 
army, succeeded Doctor Eustis at the head of the 
war department. 



MADISO.\'s AD.MIMSTRATIOX. 169 

Previous to the adjournment of Congress, a law 
was passed authorizing an extra session to be held on 
the 24th day of May, 1813. On. the following day— 
the 4th of March — President Madison again took the 
oath of oflice, and delivered his inaugural address. 

Though a party to the great anti-French coalition, 
Russia suffered considerable injury from the interrup- 
tion of American commerce during the continuance 
of the war ; and on the 8th of March, 1813, her 
minister at Washingion, Mr. Daschkolf, in pursuance 
of his instructions, offered the m'ediation of the Em- 
peror Alexander, between Great Britain and the 
United States, stating, in addition, in his olhcial note, 
that the latter power had done everything that was 
possible to prevent a rupture. President Madison 
accepted the offer, in due form, on the 11th of March; 
and on the 17th of April, John Quincy Adams, then 
minister to Russia, Albert Gallatin, and James A. 
Bayard, were appointed envoys extraordinary and 
ministers plenipotentiary, to conclude a treaty of 
peace, under the auspices of the Russian autocrat. 
Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard embarked at an early 
day, and having joined Mr. Adams at St. Petersburgh, 
they proceeded together to the Baltic, where they 
arrived in the month of June. 

But Great Britain was not yet prepared to abandon 
her unjustifiable pretensions, either by word or deed ; 
and in September of the same year, she declined the 
proffered mediation. On the 4th of November, how- 
ever, Lord Castlereagh, the British secretary for 

8 



170 Madison's administration. 

foreign affairs, informed the American government that 
his country was both ready and willing to enter upon 
a direct negotiation for peace. This proposition, too, 
was cordially accepted by President Madison, and 
Lord Castlereagh was informed, in reply, that envoys 
would be immediately sent to Gottenburg, in order to 
carry it into effect. 

Mr. Barlow, the minister to France, died at Czar- 
novitch, whither he had followed the Emperor Napo- 
leon, on the 26th of December, 1812. The vacant 
mission was filled by the appointment of William H. 
Crawford, of Georgia, on the 9th of April, 1813. 

The 13th, or, as it is sometimes called, the war Con- 
gress, assembled on the appointed day. Henry Clay 
was re-elected speaker, by a majority of thirty-five 
votes, over Timothy Pitkin, the opposing federal can- 
didate. Among the new democratic members were 
John W. Taylor, of New York ; Charles J. Ingersoll 
and Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania ; John W. 
Eppes, of Virginia ; John Forsyth, of Georgia ; and 
William P. Duval, of Kentucky. The federalists re- 
ceived a great accession of intellectual strength, in 
the appearance of Jeremiah Mason, from the state of 
New Hampshire and Rufus King, of New York, as 
senators ; and of Daniel Webster, of New Hampshire; 
Cyrus King and Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts; 
Thomas P. Grosvenor, and Thomas J. Oakley, of New 
York ; Richard Stockton, of New Jersey ; Alexander 
C. Hanson, of Maryland ; and William Gaston, of 
North Carolina, as representatives. 



MADISON S AD.MIMSTRATION. 171 

Notwithstanding the numerical iriajority of the 
adnainistration, in the two houses of Congress, was so 
large, was not always to be counted on ; for the rea- 
son, that the democratic friends of Mr. Clinton were 
so deeply chagrined on account of the result of the 
late Presidential election, that they labored, either by 
opposing the nominations, or otherwise, to embarrass 
the proceedings of the Executive. Messrs. Adams 
and Bayard were promptly confirmed, but a vigorous 
opposition was made to Mr. Gallatin, on the ground 
that the olHces of secretary of the treasury and envoy 
extraordinary could not be united in the same person. 
He was at first rejected, by a vote of eighteen to 
seventeen, but having subsequently resigned the sec- 
retaryship, he was confirmed. Captain Jones, of the 
navy department, performed the duties of secretary 
of the treasury, in connection with those rightfully 
devolving upon him, till the 9th day of February, 
1814, when George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, was 
appointed secretary of the treasury, in the place of 
Mr. Gallatin. 

Several other nominations made by President Madi- 
son were rejected at this session, by the votes of the 
Clintonian and federal senators. Among others, was 
that of Jonathan Russell, as minister to Sweden, 
which was negatived on the most absurd pretences ; 
the declaration of war being attributed to his counsel 
and advice. During the whole controversy he stood 
firmly by his country, it is true ; but he ever mani- 
fested a conciliatory spirit when consistent with the 
reouiremcnts of patriotism. 



172 Madison's administration. 

Most of the time of Congress, at the extra session, 
was spent in perfecting and passing laws for the pur- 
pose of relieving the national finances from embar- 
rassment. Measures, which, it was feared, would not 
be popular, and, therefore, were not urged during the 
presidential canvass, were now from necessity adopt- 
ed. The existing duties on imports were doubled, 
and the assessment and collection of direct taxes and 
internal duties were also provided for. Extraordinary 
expenses were incurred in preparing for the campaign 
of 1813, and, more particularly, in equipping the 
militia, who were at first, with few exceptions, miser- 
ably appointed. All the banks south of New England 
had suspended specie payments; the country was 
flooded with their discredited paper ; and government 
was obliged to make use of them as depositories of the 
public moneys. 

It seems to have been the poHcy of the federalists 
in Congress, or rather, of the New England federal- 
ists, to oppose the appropriation bills for the support 
of the army and navy, in the hope that by embarrass- 
ing the administration they would render it unpopular 
with its friends, or compel it to conclude a peace. 
The sequel will show, that, however sincere they 
may have been in the views they entertained, and in 
accordance with which they acted, they could scarcely 
have passed a course better calculated to destroy the 
party. The more moderate federalists, such as followed 
the lead of Rufus King, after the war had once been de- 
clared, refused to take any part in withholding the 



MADISOX'S ADMIMSTRATION. 173 

necessary supplies, and many of them ultimately joined 
the democratic party ; ^but the Masons, and Picker- 
ings, and Wcbsters, of the 13th Congress, wholly 
mistook the genius and character of the American 
people, and the mistake proved fatal to them as poli- 
ticians. With all their firmness and independence, and 
their high-toned integrity and sense of honor, proba- 
bly no class of men in our country, no partisans, were 
ever more prejudiced and bigotted in their political 
sympathies, or more bitter and vindictive in their en- 
mities, than the federalists of 1812. 

A numerous and powerful minority opposed the war 
throughout, but the majority stood manfully by the 
side of the country, and enabled the government to 
maintain the struggle, not without reverses and mis- 
fortunes, indeed, but with more than tolerable success, 
against one of the first powers in the world. 

The war, in 1813, was conducted with various for- 
tune. The recapture of Detroit was the first project 
in contemplation. An ill-advised movement, with this 
object in view, by General Winchester, terminated in 
the terrible defeat and massacre on the Raisin ; but 
the yeomen of the west rallied once more, with 
alacrity and enthusiasm, around the star-spangled 
banner. At Sandusky and Fort Meigs the enemy 
were repulsed. Commodore Perry swept the British 
naval force from Lake Erie in September, and ere the 
thundering echoes of this contest had died away, 
Harrison was in full pursuit of the flying Proctor. 
Maiden and Detroit were hastily abandoned, and the 



174 Madison's administration. 

valley of the Thames soon witnessed the fit chastise- 
ment of the marauders and savages whom the British 
commander had gathered round him. 

On the Niagara frontier the campaign opened au- 
spiciously ; although a grievous mistake was commit- 
ted at the outset in this quarter, in neglecting to strike 
a blow at Kingston, or gain a foothold at Prescott, in 
order to cut off the communication between the two 
Canadian Provinces, and then attack the posts in de- 
tail, as circumstances favored. York and Fort George 
were captured, and the Americans, under General 
Dearborn, established themselves in the peninsula. A 
long period of inactivity followed ; the enemy were 
successful in one or two skirmishes • and complaints 
were frequently heard. General Dearborn was inca- 
pacitated, by reason of the infirmities of age, for the 
proper fulfilment of his duties. He therefore resigned 
his commission, and was succeeded in the command 
of the army by General Wilkinson. 

Two columns were now concentrated, at Grenadier 
island and Plattsburgh, respectively commanded by 
Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, for the invasion of 
Canada and the capture of Montreal. The expedi- 
tion down the St. Lawrence, and the corresponding 
movement from Plattsburg, both ended in disaster and 
disgrace. The army then retired into winter quar- 
ters, scarcely consoled for their ill success, by the vic- 
tories of Harrison in the early part of the campaign, 
and the glorious intelhgence soon received from the 
southern frontier, where Jackson and his brave troops 



Madison's administration. 175 

had gallantly routed, and almost exterminated, the 
Creek warriors, who had dug up the hatchet at the 
instigation of British agents, and the Spanish officers 
in Florida. 

Outrages and depredations, of the most barbarous 
and revolting character, were committed on the sea 
coast by Admiral Cockburn and others ; and on the 
ocean, our flag did not always ride triumphant. The 
losses of American commerce were great, but exceed- 
ed by very httle, if at all, those previously sustained 
from English seizures and sequestrations, and French 
depredations. Hundreds of British merchant vessels, 
however, were captured this year by American pri- 
vateers ; and the frigates President, Captain Rodgers, 
Congress, Captain Smith, and Essex, Captain Porter, 
carried terror into every sea. In February, the Brit- 
ish brig Peacock surrendered to the Hornet, Captain 
Lawrence ; but on the 1st of June following, the same 
officer lost his hfe in the vain attempt to defend the 
frigate Chesapeake. On the 14th of June, a similar 
disaster was experienced in the capture of the Argus, 
Captain Allen, by the British sloop-of-war Pelican. 
But the successes of Rodgers, Smith, and Porter, more 
than compensated for these losses ; and the tide of 
victory again turned, in September, when the British 
brig Boxer was captured by the enterprise, Lieuten- 
ant Burrows. 

Congress adjourned on the 2d of August, and re- 
assembled, for the regular session, on the 6th of De- 
cember. On the 18th of January, 1814, Jonathan 



176 Madison's administration. 

Russell and Henry Clay were added to the commis- 
sioners previously appointed to treat with Great Brit- 
ain. There being a vacancy in the office of Speaker, 
Felix Grundy was supported by the majority of the 
democratic members as Mr. Clay's successor ; but the 
choice of the house fell upon Langdon Cheves, who 
received the votes of the federalists, and of a portion 
of the democratic representatives. A most stringent 
embargo and non-intercourse law was adopted, soon 
after the meeting of Congress, in accordance with the 
recommendation of President Madison ; but, upon the 
urgent remonstrances of all parties in the eastern 
states, it was repealed on the 14th of April following. 
A loan of twenty-five millions of dollars, in addition 
to previous loans, was authorized to be created in order 
to carry on the war. Laws were also passed for the 
augmentation of the army and navy, and provision was 
made for the payment of bounties and pensions. 

On the 19th of February, Mr. Taylor, of New 
York, from the committee of ways and means, report- 
ed a bill for the establishment of a National Bank in 
the District of Columbia, wath a capital of thirty mil- 
lions of dollars. The principle of this bill was approv- 
ed by Mr. Cheves, Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Grundy, but 
opposed by Mr. Eppes and Mr. Seybert. There were 
others, too, who did not favor it, for the reason that 
it contained no provision for the establishment of 
branches in the states. A motion to engraft this fea- 
ture upon the bill, made by Mr. Fisk, of New York, 
received but thirty-six votes, after which there was 



MADTSOX S ADMIMSTRATIOX. 177 

no further action had upon it. But the public credit 
was daily depreciating ; treasury notes were seven- 
teen per cent., and government stocks thirty per cent, 
below par ; and, influenced by these considerations, 
many of the democratic members appeared disposed 
to waive the constitutional scruples they had before 
entertained in regard to the incorporation of a bank. 

Accordingly, on the 2d of April, Mr. Grundy, with 
the advice of President Madison, as it is supposed, in- 
troduced a resolution authorizing the appointment of 
a committee to inquire into the expediency of estab- 
lishing a National Bunk. The federalists, and a num- 
ber of democratic members, among whom were Mr. 
Eppes and Mr. Ingersoll, opposed the resolution, and 
voted in favor of a motion to postpone it indefinitely. 
The democrats, generally, voted against the postpone- 
ment, and a committee was appointed, of which Mr. 
Grundy was chairman. But within four days after 
their appointment, they were discharged, on motion of 
Mr. Grundy, from all further consideration of the sub- 
ject. 

" During the session a very interesting subject was 
submitted to the consideration of Congress. Twenty 
three American soldiers, taken at the battle of Queens- 
town in the autumn of 1812, were detained in close 
confinement on the charge of being native-born Brit- 
ish subjects, and afterwards sent to England to under- 
go a trial for high treason. On this being made known 
to our government, orders were given to General 

Dearborn to confine a like number of British prison- 

8* 



178 Madison's administration. 

ers taken at Fort George, and to keep them as hosta- 
ges for the safety of the Americans ; instructions 
which were carried into effect, and soon after made 
known to the governor of Canada. The British gov- 
ernment was no sooner informed of this, than Gover- 
nor Prevost was ordered to place forty-six American 
commissioned and non-commissioned officers in con- 
finement. * * *. General Wilkinson soon after 
informed Governor Prevost, that, in consequence of 
orders he had received from his government, he had 
put forty-six British officers in confinement, to be there 
detained until it should be known that the American 
officers were released. On the receipt of this intelli- 
gence, the Canadian governor ordered all the Ameri- 
can prisoners into close confinement ; and a similar 
step was soon after taken by our government." * 

The course of the British government in denying 
the right of expatriation, and her claim to the perpet- 
ual allegiance of her subjects — made, too, when her 
practice, on the continent, was directly the reverse, 
and when Moreau and Bernadotte, were leading the 
allied forces against the armies of their native land — 
found many advocates on the floor of Congress ; and 
Mr. Hauson, the editor of the federal newspaper at 
Baltimore whose office had been mobbed, with others 
of the same party, made able speeches on that side 
of the question ; but the democratic members, and 
some of the federalists, scouted an idea which, as 
they regarded it, was wholly at variance with the 
genius and spirit of our free institutions. 

*Brackenridge'9 Historj- of the war of 1812. 



•"i 



Madison's administration. 179 

After fixing upon a day in advance of the regular 
time, for the commencement of the ensuing session, 
Congress adjourned on the 18th of April, 1814. 

The brillant successes achieved by the British in 
the Spanish peninsula, and the comparative pacification 
of that portion of the continent, enabled the enemy to 
increase her naval force on our seaboard, and to send 
out large numbers of additional troops. Vigorous 
preparations, too, were made to prosecute the war 
with greater vijior. But, on the other side, the 
Americans redoubled their exertions. The depreda- 
tions committed on the Atlantic coast, and the rejec- 
tion of the Russian mediation, had created hosts of 
friends for tiie administration, and the elections that 
took place this year were decidedly more favorable. 
Some of the ultra federalists in the Eastern States 
endeavored to stem the current, and the Hartford 
Convention, in the autumn of 1814, was designed to 
give expression to their views, and to concoct plans 
for compelling the executive to terminate the war. 
A cloud of mystery still enshrouds the doings of this 
body, and the designs of its movers have never been 
fully divulged. It is not probable that they contem- 
plated any overt act of hostility to the general gov- 
ernment, though they may have favored a secession 
of the New England states from the confederacy. 
They intended, doubtless, to stop just short of treason; 
and such has long since been the deliberate judgment 
of the American people. 

Early in July, one column of the American army. 



180 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

now officered by younger and more active and enter- 
prising men crossed the Niagara, and took possession 
of Fort Erie. Tlie well-fouglit battles of Chippewa 
and Niagara, if not productive of any decisive re- 
sults, while they crowned the brows of the gallant 
Brown, and Scott, and their associates, with unfading 
laurels, vindicated, in addition, the military reputation 
of the country. Lai'ge reinforcements having joined 
the British general, the Americans now under General 
Gaines, were besieged in Fort Erie ; but they de- 
fended themselves with spirit and bravery, and main- 
tained their position in the peninsula, until the neces- 
sity of going into winter quarters compelled them to 
recross the river. 

After making extensive preparations. Sir George 
Pi'evost penetrated into New York, by the way of 
Lake Champlain, with an immense land force, suppor- 
ted by a considerable fleet under Commodore Downie. 
The issue of this expedition was decided on the lake, 
where Commodore Macdonough, in command of the 
American naval force, nearly annihilated the British 
flotilla. A few indecisive skirmishes took place be- 
tween the British army and the American troops at 
Plattsburg and its vicinity, under General Macomb ; 
but after the defeat of Commodore Downie, Sir 
George Pre vest retired into Canada, with the shat- 
tered remnants of his army, in great haste and dis- 
order. 

In the month of August, a powerful English squad- 
ron, under Sir Alexander Cochrane, having on board 



Madison's administration. 181 

a large body of troops commanded by General Ross, 
entered Chesapeake Bay, and proceeded up the Pa- 
tuxent to Marlborough, where they landed without 
opposition. Through the negligence of the secretary 
of war, suitable preparations had not been made to 
receive the enemy ; and the indecision, and want of 
energy, of General Winder, who commanded the 
American troops hastily collected together, enabled 
them to achieve an easy victory over him, at Bla- 
densburg. The British commander then proceeded to 
Washington, where the dock-yards and shipping, and 
the pacific edifices of the government, including the 
capitol with the valuable library of Congress, and the 
President's house, were destroyed, on the 24th of 
August, under his orders. Having completed this 
barbarous and unjustifiable work of destruction, he 
retired to his shipping, and again descended the river 
to the Chesapeake. In September General Ross as- 
cended the bay with his forces, in the expectation of 
effecting the capture of Baltimore. A spirited and 
successful defence was made, however ; the British 
commander was killed ; and, as the country had now 
become fully aroused, the English squadron, fearing 
for its own safety, descended the bay, and sailed for 
Pensacola, where large reinforcements, under General 
Pakenham, a relative and favorite lieutenant of Well- 
ington, shortly after arrived. The attack and capture 
of New Orleans, known to be in a defenceless state, 
was now projected by the united forces. 

President Madison, and the secretaries of state, 



182 Madison's administration. 

war, and the navy, were eye-witnesses of the untoward 
result of the contest at Bladensburg, Returning to 
Washington, the public archives were partially se- 
cured, and the President then retired into Virginia, 
from whence he issued a proclamation, on the 1st of 
September, calling upon the people to rally in defence 
of the country, and encouraging them to persevere in 
maintaining the contest. 

On the ocean our arms sustained a great reverse in 
the early part of the year, in the capture of the frigate 
Essex, in the harbor of Valparaiso, by two British 
vessels, on the 28th of March. Later in the season, 
the navy met with better fortune. The British sloop- 
of-war Epervier was captured by the Peacock, in the 
gulf of Mexico ; and the American sloop-of-war Wasp, 
Captain Blakeley, made prizes, successively, of two 
vessels of similar force with herself, in the EngUsh 
channel. 

Congress had adjourned to meet on the last Monday 
in October, but it was called together on the 19th of 
September, by a proclamation of the Executive, in 
consequence of the threatened attack on New Orleans, 
and the embarrassing condition of the finances. It 
appeared from the President's message, that the sum 
of thirty two millions of dollars had been received 
into the treasury during the nine months ending on 
the 30th of June previous, eleven millions of which 
were the proceeds of the public revenue and the re- 
mainder the avails of the loans authorized by Con- 
gress. The disbursments during the same period had 



Madison's AnMrxiSTRATioN. 183 

exceeded thirty-four millions, and it was necessary to 
provide large sums, in addition, to meet the expenses 
incident to a continuance of hostilities. The Presi- 
dent informed Congress, that, as the English orders 
in council had been repealed, and the general pacifi- 
cation in Europe had withdrawn the occasion for the 
practice of impressment, peace and amity would 
probably be soon established by the commissioners of 
the two belligerents, who had assembled at Ghent, in 
the month of August, instead of at Gottenburg as had 
been first proposed. 

General Armstrong was severely censured for the 
disastrous capture of Washington, and the President 
seemed it his duty to request him to retire from 
Washington for a short time, in order that the ex- 
citement might subside. The secretary constructed 
this into an affront, and resigned his office on the 20lh 
of September. Mr. Monroe then took charge of the 
war department. It was designed that he should re- 
sign the office of Secretary of State, and it was ten- 
dered to Daniel D. Tompkins, governor of New York, 
who had rendered the most efficient services to the ad- 
ministration in carrying on the war. Mr. Tompkins, 
how^ever, declined the appointment, and Mr. Monroe 
continued to discharge the duties of both offices, till 
the 2d of March. 1816, when William H. Crawford, 
of Georgia, was appointed Secretary of war. 

Other changes had been made in the cabinet previ- 
ous to this time. Mr. Pinckney resigned the office of 
attorney general, and was succeeded by Richard Rush, 



184 Madison's administration. 

of Pennsylvania, on the 10th of February, 1814. Mr. 
Granger continued to manifest so much hostility to 
the administration, that the President removed him 
from office, and, on the 17th of March, 1814, appoint- 
ed Return Jonathan Meigs, governor of the State of 
Ohio, postmaster general, in his place. 

Ill health compelled Mr. Campbell to resign the of- 
fice of Secretary of the Treasury, towards the close 
of September, 1814, and, on the 6th of October, Al- 
exander J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to 
succeed him. 

Among the measures, adopted by the 13th congress, 
at its last session, was one imposing a new direct tax 
of six millions of dollars ; another imposing addition- 
al internal duties, and increasing the rates of postage 
fifty per cent. A violent opposition was made to 
these proceedings, but withcjpt success, by the federal 
members. A bill was also introduced authorizing the 
president to call out the militia of any state, if the 
governor thereof refused so to do : it was carried 
through the House, by dint of great exertions, but 
defeated in the Senate by one vote. Mr. Monroe, the 
acting Secretary of war, made a report on the 17th 
of October, in favor of increasing the rank and file 
of the army, to one hundred thousand men, by draft- 
ing the requisite number from the free male popula- 
tion of the United States. A similar proposition for 
the augmentation of the naval force, was made by 
the Secretary of the navy, Mr. Jones, who was sue- 



Madison's administration. 185 

ceeded in his office, on the 19th of December, 1814, 
by Benjamin W. Crowninshield, of Massachusetts. 

The cry of conscription and impressment was forth- 
with raised by the opponents of the administration, 
and Congress hesitated in adopting the recommenda- 
tions of the cabinet officers. Mr. Monroe soon dis- 
covered that nothing hke the prompt action he desired, 
and which was absolutely necessary, could be antici- 
pated. Orders were therefore given to the militia of 
the western states to hasten to the defence of New 
Orleans ; Mr. Monroe pledged his individual credit in 
order to raise the funds required for that purpose, on 
account which he was embarrassed, in his pecuniary 
circumstances, during the remainder of his life ; and 
thus General Jackson was enabled to achieve the bril- 
liant victory on the plains of Chalmette, which closed 
the war in a blaze of glory. 

Fortunately, these stringent measures for the in- 
crease of the army and navy, were not rendered ne- 
cessary, in consequence of the conclusion of a treaty 
of peace, at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814. 
Intelligence of this event was received in the United 
States, in the month of February, and communicated 
to Congress officially, by the President, on the 20th 
inst. The British commissioners had at one time as- 
sumed a highly offensive and arrogant tone ; but the 
victories of Brown and Scott, the defeat of Commo- 
dore Downie, and the inglorious retreat of Sir George 
Prevost, soon moderated their demands. They at iirst 
insisted that the Indian tribes witliin the limits of the 



186 jMadisom's administration. 

union should forever enjoy a separate and independent 
sovereignty. This was instantly rejected by the 
American commissioners. As the orders in council 
had been repealed, and the British government had 
discontinued the practice of impressment, there were 
not, however, many obstacles in the way of the con- 
clusion of the treaty which was ultimately signed. 

By the terms of the treaty, a mutual restoration of 
all places and possessions taken during the war, or 
that might be taken after its signature, was stipulated, 
and the boundaries between the United States and the 
British possessions on the north, were more satisfac- 
torily adjusted. In regard to the practice of impress- 
ment the treaty was silent ; for the reason, as stated 
by the American to the British commissioners, under 
instructions from the secretary of State, that Great 
Britain had abandoned it. The causes of the war 
had been entirely removed ; the orders in council had 
been revoked, and impressment was no longer prac- 
ticed ; hence, everything for which the United States 
engaged in the contest, had either directly or tacitly 
been conceded; and they could, without any sacrifice 
of honor, join in a pacification, even though the trea- 
ty was silent in regard to those measures which had 
originally led to hostilities. 

Various propositions for the charter of a Bank of 
the United States, were brought forward at the ses- 
sion of 1814 — 15. At length, after much discussion, 
a bill passed the Senate, on the 9th of December, 
1814, providing for the incorporation of a bank with 



Madison's administration. 187 

a capital of fifty millions of dollars. The vote stood 
17 to 14 ; the federal members opposing the bill in 
consequence of their disapprobation of some ot its 
details, in connection with those democrats who be- 
lieved it to be unconstitutional. In the House the bill 
was amended so as to reduce the capital stock to thir- 
ty milhons of dollars, and in some other features al- 
terations were made. It was then pressed to a final 
vote on the 7th of January, 1815. The result was, 
120 in favor of the bill, to 37 against it. Messrs. 
Calhoun, Forsyth, IngersoU, and Lowndes, of the 
democratic party, supported the bill, together with 
Messrs. Oakley, Pickering, Pitkin, and Webster, of 
the opposition. Messrs. Grosvenor and King, promi- 
nent federalists, voted against it, as did also, Messrs. 
Eppes, Fisk, of New York, Macon, and Seybert. 

The senate having concurred in the amendments of 
the House, the bill was sent to the President for his 
signature on the 21st day of January. On the 30th 
instant, the President returned the bill with his objec- 
tions. He expressly waived the question of the con- 
stitutional power to charter such an institution, 
as being precluded, by repeated recognitions, on 
former occasions, of its validity ; but his objections 
were, that the hank proposed to be incorporated by 
the bill, would not, in his judgment, revive the public 
credit, or provide a circulating medium, or furnish 
the necessary loans, in time of war. The bill being 
then reconsidered in the senate, but fifteen voted in 
favor of its passage, to nineteen against it, wherefore 



188 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION. 

it was declared lost. Other attempts to procure a 
charter were made at this session, but all failed of 
success. 

On the 23rd of November, 1814, the vice president 
of the United States, had died suddenly in his carriage, 
while on his way to the capitol. During the remain- 
der of the session, John Gaillard, of South Carolina, 
officiated as president p^o. tern, in the Senate. 

Before the adjournment of Congress, which took 
place on the 3rd of March, 1815, the army was re- 
duced to a peace establishment, and the non-inter- 
course law was repealed. An act was also passed 
authorizing the President to dispatch a squadron to 
the Mediterranean to chastise the Algerines, whose 
cruisers had committed serious depredations on Amer- 
ican commerce. The force ordered upon this service 
was placed under the command of Commodore De- 
catur, who soon captured and destroyed all the prin- 
cipal vessels of the enemy, and dictated to them terms 
of peace at the cannon's mouth. 

The 14th Congress assembled at Washington, for 
their first regular session, on the 4th of December, 
and continued in session till the 30th of April 1816. 
The democrats had about fifty majority, and as Mr. 
Clay had been returned to this Congress, he was once 
more elected speaker, without serious opposition. At 
this session reduced rates of postage were established, 
and a great reduction in the duties and taxes was 
made. A new tariff' of duties on importations, de- 
signed to be moderately protective to American man- 



Madison's admimstratio.v. 159 

utacturers, was adopted, with the concurrence and 
approbation of Messrs. Clay, Calhoun, Lowndes, and 
other prominent members of the democratic party. 

Shortly after the opening of the session, a com- 
mittee on a national currency, of which Mr. Calhoun 
was chairman, was appointed. Having obtained from 
the Secretary of the Treasury a plan for a national 
bank, adapted, as was said, to the pressing emergen- 
cies of the country, Mr. Calhoun reported a bill of 
incorporation from the committee, on the 8th of Janu- 
ary, 1815. By this bill a bank was proposed to be 
chartered with a capital of thirty-five millions of dol- 
lars, seven millions of which was to be taken by the 
United States, to be located in the city of Philadephia. 
The bill finally passed the House on the 14th of March, 
by a vote of 80 to 71 ; and on the 3d of April was 
sustained in the Senate, by a vote of 22 to 12. The 
bill was subsequently approved by Mr. Madison, and 
went into operation, with Langdon Cheves, of South 
Carolina, late speaker of the house of representatives, 
as its first president. 

The last session of Congress held during the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Madison, commenced on the 2d 
of December, 1816, and terminated on the 3d day of 
March, 1817. The President congratulated the mem- 
bers of the two houses, in his annual message, on the 
prosperous condition of the country, since the return 
of the peace, and the promise aflbrded of a steady 
advancement, in the future, along the bright career 
which destiny had marked out for her. One of the 



196 Madison's administration. 

most important acts passed at this session was that 
providing for the payment of the public debt, which 
now exceeded one hundred and twenty millions of 
dollars, though the indefatigable exertions of its au- 
thor, Mr. Lowndes, chairman of the committee of 
ways and means. The navigation laws were revised, 
and an act was passed regulating the territories, and 
authorizing them to be represented in Congress, by a 
single delegate each. 

Indiana was admitted into the Union as a state on 
the 11th of December, 1816. Shortly before the 
close of the session, the bonus to be paid by the bank 
of the United States for its charter, was appropriated 
by act of Congress to purposes of internal improve- 
ment ; but the bill was vetoed by the President, and, 
consequently, did not become a law. 

With the third day of March, 1817, the administra- 
tion of President Madison expired. It was his fortune 
to conduct the aftairs of state in a most trying period 
of our country's history ; but she passed in safety 
through the perils that beset her ; and when he re- 
tired to the peaceful shades of Montpelier, he left his 
countrymen in the enjoyment of an unusual degree 
of tranquility, prosperity and happiness, — he left " a 
government," to quote the language of his last annual 
message, " which avoids intrusion on the internal re- 
pose of other nations, and repels them from its own ; 
which does justice to all nations w4th a readiness 
equal to the firmness with which it requires justice 
from them ; and which, while it refines its domestic 



MADISO.X S ADMINISTRATION. 191 

code from every ingredient not congenial with the 
precepts of an enlightened age, and the sentiments of 
a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason and by 
its liberal examples, to infuse into the law which gov- 
erns the civihzed world a spirit which may diminish 
the frequency, or circumscribe the calamities of war, 
and meliorate the social and beneficient relations of 
peace : a government, in a word, whose conduct, 
within and without, may bespeak the most noble of 
all ambitions — that of promoting peace on earth, and 
good will to man." 



LIFE OF 

JAMES MONROE, 

BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



LIFE 



OF 



JAMES MONROE: 



Among the peculiarities affecting the condition of 
human existence, in a community formed within the 
period allotted to the life of man, is the state of being 
exclusively belonging to the individuals who assisted 
in the formation of that community. Three thousand 
years have elapsed since the Monarch of Israel, who, 
from that time, has borne the reputation of the wisest 
of men, declared that there was no 7iew thing under 
the sun. And then, as now, the assertion, confined to 
the operations of nature, to the instincts of animal 
hfe, to the primary purposes, and innate passions of 
human kind, was, and is, strictly true. Of all the il- 
lustrations of the sentiment given by him, the course 
is now as it was then. One generation passeth away, 
and another generation cometh. To the superficial 
observation of the human eye, the Sun still ariseth 

•Eulogy delivered before the Corporation of Boston, 1831. 



198 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

and goeth down ; the wind whirleth about continual- 
ly ; all rivers run into the sea, which yet is not full ; 
and all things are full of labor, which man cannot ut- 
ter : yet, although the thing that hath been is that 
which shall be, and that which is done is that which 
shall be done, — still the eye is not satisfied with see- 
ing, nor the ear filled with hearing : and this affords 
the solution to all the rest. The aspirations of man 
to a better condition than that which he enjoys, are 
at once the pledges of his immortality, and the privi- 
leges of his existence upon earth ; they combine for 
his enjoyment the still freshening charms of novelty 
with the immutable laws of creation, and intertwine 
the ever-varying felicities of his condition with the 
unchangeable monotony of nature. 

Thus, a thousand years after Solomon had ceased 
to exist upon earth, when his kingdom had been ex- 
tinguished, and his nation carried into captivity, there 
arose among his own descendants, a Redeemer of the 
human race from the thraldom of sin ; the Mediator 
of a new covenant between God and man. From that 
time, though all remained unchanged in the phenome- 
na of creation, all was new in the condition of human 
life. In the rise and fall of successive empires, other 
novelties succeed each other from age to age. New 
planets are discovered in the heavens, and new conti- 
nents are revealed upon earth. New pursuits are 
opened to industry ; new comforts to enjoyment ; new 
prospects to hope. The secrets of the physical and 
intellectual world are gradually disclosed ; the pow- 



MFE OF JAMES MONROE. l[)9 

ers of man are from time to time enlarged : but the 
eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with 
hearing. The tendency of the magnet to the pole, 
and its application to the purposes of navigation ; the 
composition of gunpowder, and its application to the 
purposes of war ; the invention of printing, and its 
application to all the purposes of man in peace and 
war,— to the wants of the body, and the expansion of 
the mind,— the gift as it were, of a new earth to re- 
plenish and subdue, by the disclosure of a new hemis- 
phere, to the enterprise and capacities of man ; all 
these things are new in the records of the human spe- 
cies. Each of these things diverted into a new chan- 
nel the current of human affairs, and furnished for the 
lord of the creation a new system of occupations in 
his progress from the cradle to the grave. 

But of all the changes efTected, and all the novel- 
ties introduced into the condition of human beings, 
since the promulgation of the gospel of Christ, none 
has been more considerable than that, the develop- 
ment of which began with the severance of the Brit- 
ish colonies in North America from the parent stock. 
The immediate collision of rights, interests, and pas- 
sions, which produced the confiict between the par- 
ties, and ended in sundering the two portions of the 
empire engaged, occupied and absorbed the agency 
and the powers of the actors on that memorable thea- 
tre. An English poet has declared it praise enough 
to fill the ambition of a common man, that he was the 
countryman of Wolfe, and spoke the language of 



200 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

Chatham. The colonists who achieved the indepen- 
dence of North America, were the countrymen of 
Wolfe, and Chatham's language was their mother- 
tongue. But of what avail for praise would this have 
been to them, had they not possessed souls, inspired 
with the same principles, and hearts endowed with 
higher energies than those which conducted those il- 
lustrious names to the pinnacle of glory. Never 
would the object of the North American Revolution 
have been accomplished but by men, in whose bosoms 
the love of liberty had been implanted from their birth 
and imbibed from the maternal breast. 

Considered in itself, the independence of our coun- 
try was only the splitting up of one civilized nation 
into two — caused by usurpation ; consummated by 
war. As such, it constituted one great element in the 
history of civilized man during its continuance ; but 
that was short and transient. From the Stamp Act 
to the definite Treaty of Peace, concluded at Paris, 
on the third of September, 1783, a term of less than 
twenty years intervened, — a term scarcely sufficient 
for the action of one of the dramas of Shakspeare. 
It was not even equal to the duration of one age of 
man. We have already lived since the close of that 
momentous struggle nearly thrice the extent of time, 
in which it passed through all its stages, and there are 
yet among the living those whose birth preceded even 
that of the questions upon which hinged our indepen- 
dent existence as a nation. 

Among these was the distinguished person, whoso 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 201 

earthly career terminated on the fifty-fifth Anniversa- 
ry of our National Independence. 

James Monroe was born in September, 1759, in the 
County of Westmoreland, in the then Colony of Vir- 
ginia ; and at the time of the declaration of Indepen- 
dence, was in the process of completing his education 
at the college of William and Mary. He was then 
seventeen years of age, and at the first formation of 
the American army entered it as a cadet. Had he 
been born ten years before, it can scarcely be doubted 
that he would have been one of the members of the 
first Congress, and that his name would have gone 
down to posterity among those of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. Among the blessings 
conferred by a beneficent Providence upon this coun- 
try in the series of events which composed that Revo- 
lution, was its influence in the formation of individual 
and of national character. The controversy which 
preceded the Revolutionary war, necessarily formed 
by a practical education the race of statesmen, by 
whom it was conducted to its close. The nature of 
the controversy itself, turning upon the elementary 
principles of civil society, upon the natural rights of 
man, and the foundations of government, pointed the 
attention of men to the investigation of those princi- 
ples ; exercised all the intellectual faculties of the 
most ardent and meditative souls, and led to discover- 
ies in the theory of government which have changed 
the face of the world. 

The conflict of mind preceded that of matter. The 



202 LIFE OF J^M£S MONROE. 

question at issue, between Great Britain and her col- 
onies, was purely a question of right. On one side, 
a pretension to authority, on the other a claim of free- 
dom. It was a lawsuit between the British King and 
Parliament of the one part, and the people of the 
colonies, of the other, pleaded before the tribunal of 
the human race. It was an advantage to the cause 
of the colonies in that contest, that it reposed exclu- 
sively upon the basis of right. " Authority," says a 
keen observer of human nature, 

" Authority, though it err like others, 
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself 
That skins the vice on the top." 

In the preluding struggle to the war of Indepen- 
dence, British authority was constantly administering 
this self-healing medicine to her own wrongs. The 
first assertion of her right, was an act of Parliament 
to levy a tax. When she found its execution imprac- 
ticable, she repealed the tax, but declared the right of 
Parliament to make laws for the colonies, in all cases 
whatsover. To this mere declaration, the colonies 
could make no resistance. It sldnned the vice on the 
top. With the next act of taxation she sent fleets 
and armies for the healing medicine to her en-ors. 
She dissolved the colonial Assemblies, revoked the 
colonial charters, sealed up the port of Boston, an- 
nihilated the colonial fisheries, and proclaimed the 
province of Massachusetts bay in rebellion. These 
were the healing medicines of British authority ; 
while the only pretence of right that she could allege 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 203 

for all these acts, was the sovereignty of the British 
ParHamcnt. 

To contend against this array of power, the only 
defence of the colonies at the outset was the right and 
justice of their cause. From the first promulgation 
of the Stamp Act, the spirit of resistance, with the 
speed of a sunbeam, flashed instantaneous through all 
the colonies; kindled every heart and raised every 
arm. But this spirit of resistance, and this unanimity, 
would have been transitory and evanescent, had it not 
been sustained, invigorated, and made iirv'incible, by 
the basis of eternal and immutable justice in the 
cause. It engrossed, it absorbed all the faculties of 
the soul. It inspired the eloquence which poured 
itself forth in the colonial Assemblies, in the instruc- 
tions from the inhabitants of many of the towns to 
their Representatives, and even in newspaper essays, 
and occasional pamphlets by individuals. The gen- 
eral contest gave rise to frequent incidental controver- 
sies between the royal Governors, and the colonial 
Legislatures, in which the collision of principles, 
stimulated the energies, directed the researches, and 
expanded the faculties of those who maintained the 
rights of their country. The profoundest philosophi- 
cal statesman of the British empire, at that period, 
noticed the operation of these causes, in one of his 
admirable speeches to the House of Commons. He 
remarked the natural tendency and etfect of the study 
and practice of the law, to quicken the intellect, and 

to sharpen the reasoning powers of men. He observ- 

9* 



204 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

ed the preponderant portion of lawyers in the colonial 
Legislatures, and in the Continental Congress, and the 
influence of their oratory and their argument upon 
the understanding and the will of their countrymen. 
Yet that same clear sighted and penetrating statesman, 
long after the Declaration of Independence, penned 
with his own hand an address to the people of the 
United States, urging them to return to their British 
allegiance, and assuring them that their struggle against 
the colossal power of Great Britain, must be fruitless 
and vain. Chatham himself, the most eloquent orator 
of England — whose language it is the boast of honest 
pride to speak — Chatham, a peer of the British realm, 
in the sanctury of her legislation, declared his appro- 
bation of the American cause, his disclaimer of all 
right in Parliament to tax the colonies, and his joy, 
that the people of the colonies had resisted the pre- 
tension. Yet that same Chatham, not only after the 
declaration, but after the conclusion of solemn treaties 
of alliance between the United States and France, 
sacrificed the remnant of his days, and wasted his ex- 
piring breath, in feeble and fruitless protestations 
against the irrevocable sentence to which his country 
was doomed — the acknowledgment of American Inde- 
pendence. It has been said, that men's judgments 
are a parcel of their fortunes ; and they who believe 
in a superintending Providence have constant occasion 
to remark the wisdom from above, which unfolds the 
purposes of signal improvement in the condition of 
man, by preparing, and maturing in advance, the in- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 205 

struments by which they are ultimately to be accom- 
plished. The intellectual conflict, which, for a term 
of twelve years, had preceded the Declaration of In- 
dependence, had formed a race of men, of whom the 
signers of that instrument were the selected and faith- 
ful representatives. Their constituents were like 
themselves. Life, fortune, and sacred honor were 
staked upon the maintenance of that declaration. Not 
alone the life, fortune, and sacred honor of the individ- 
uals who signed their names, but with little exception, 
of the people whom they represented. One spirit an- 
imated the mass, and that spirit was invincible. It is 
a striking circumstance to remark, that in the island 
of Great Britain, not a single mind existed capable of 
comprehending this spirit and its power. — Deeper and 
more capacious minds, bolder and more ardent hearts, 
than Burke and Chatham, have seldom, in any age of 
the world, and in any region of the earth, appeared 
upon the stage of action. Yet we have here unques- 
tionable demonstration that neither of them had form- 
ed a conception of the power, physical, moral and in- 
tellectual, of that unextinguishable flame which per- 
vaded every particle of the man, soul and body, of 
the self declared independent American. It is an easy 
resource of vulgar controversy to transfer the stress 
of her argument from the cause, to the motive of her 
adversary, and the rottenness of any cause, will gen- 
erally be found proportioned to the propensity mani- 
fested by its supporters, to resort to this expedient. 
On the question which bred the revolution of indepen- 



206 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

dence, the taxation of the colonies by Parliament, all 
the great and leading minds of the British islands, all 
who have left a name on which the memory of pos- 
terity will repose, Mansfield and Johnson excepted, 
were on the American side. Burke, Chatham, Cam- 
den, Fox, Sheridan, Rockingham, Dunning, Barre, 
Lansdown, all recorded their constant, deep and sol- 
emn protestations, against the system of measures 
which forced upon the colonies the blessing of Inde- 
pendence. But when Chatham and Camden raised in 
vain their voices to arrest the uplifted arm of oppres- 
sion, George Grenville and his abettors knew, or 
deemed so little of the spirit and argument of the 
Americans, that they affirmed it was all furnished for 
them by Chatham and Camden, and that their only 
motive was to supplant the Chancellor of the Exche- 
quer. Adam Smith, the penetrating searcher into the 
cause of the wealth of nations, whose book was 
published about a year after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, without deigning to spend a word upon the 
cause of America, with deep sagacity of face and 
gravity of muscle, assures his readers, that they are 
very weak, who imagine that the Amei'icans will 
easily be conquered — for that the Continential Con- 
gress consists of men, who from shopkeepers, trades- 
men and attornies, are become statesmen and legisla- 
tors. That they are employed in contriving a new 
form of government, for an extensive empire, which 
they justly flatter themselves will become one of the 
greatest and most formidable that ever was in the 



LIFE OF JAMES JIONROE. 207 

world. That if the Americans should be subdued, all 
these men would lose their importance — and the remedy 
that he proposes is, to start a new object for their am- 
bition, by forming a union of the colonies with Great 
Britain, and admitting some of the leading Americans 
into Parliament. Yet this man was the author of a 
Theory of Moral Sentiments in which he resolved all 
moral principle into sympathy. 

True it was, that the shopkeepers, tradesmen and 
attornies, were occupied in contriving a new form of 
government, for an extensive empire, which they 
might reasonably flatter themselves would become 
the greatest and most glorious that the world has ever 
seen. They were at the same time employed in rais- 
ing, organizing, training and disciplining fleets and 
armies to maintain the cause of freedom, and of their 
country, against all Britannia's thunders. And they 
were employed in maintaining by reason and argu- 
ment before the tribunal of mankind, and in the face 
of heaven, the eternal justice of their cause. Thus 
they were employed. Thus had been employed the 
members of the Continental Congress, and thousands 
of their constituents, from the time when the princes 
and nobles of Britain had imposed these employments 
upon them, by the visitation of the Stamp Act. And 
now is it not matter of curious speculation, does it 
not open new views of human nature, to observe, 
that while the shopkeepers, tradesmen and attornies 
of British North America were thus employed, Adam 
Smith, the profound theorist of moral sentiment, the 



203 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

illustrious discoverer of the sources of the wealth of 
nations, could in the depth and compass of his mighty 
mind, imagine no operative impulse to the conduct of 
men thus employed, but a paltry gratification of van- 
ity, in their individual importance, from which they 
might easily be weaned, by the superior and irresisti - 
ble allurement of a seat in the British House of 
Commons 1 

More than half a century has now passed away ; 
the fruits of the employment of these shopkeepers, 
tradesmen and attornies, transformed into statesmen 
and legislators, now form the most instructive, as well 
as the most splendid chapter in the history of man- 
kind. They did contrive a new form of government 
for an extensive empire, which nothing under the 
canopy of heaven, but the basest degeneracy of their 
posterity can prevent from becoming the greatest and 
the most formidable that the world ever saw. They 
did maintain before earth and heaven, the justice 
of their cause. They did defend their country against 
all the thunders of Britain, and compelled her mon- 
arch, her nobles, and her people, to acknowledge the 
Independence which they had declared, and to receive 
their confederated republic among the sovereign po- 
tentates of the world. Of the shopkeepers, trades- 
men and attornies, who composed the Congress of 
Independence, the career on earth has closed. They 
sleep with their fathers. Have they lost their indi- 
vidual importance 1. Say, ye who venerate as an 
angel upon earth, the solitary remnant of that assem- 



LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 209 

bly, yet lingering upon the verge of eternity. Give 
me tiie rule of proportion, between a seat, from old 
Sarum, in the House of Commons, and the name of 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, at the foot of the 
Declaration of Independence 1 Was honest fame, one 
of the motives to action in the human heart, excluded 
from the philosophical estimate of Adam Smith ? Did 
he suppose patrotism, the love of liberty, benevolence 
and ardor for the welfare and improvement of human 
kind, inaccessible to the bosoms of the shopkeepers, 
statesman, and attorney legislators ? I forbear to 
pursue the inquiry further, though more ample illus- 
tration might easily be adduced to confirm the position 
which I would submit to your meditations : that the 
conflict for our national Independence, and the con- 
troversy of twelve years which preceded it, did, in 
the natural course of events, and by the ordinary dis- 
pensations of Providence, produce and form a race of 
men, of moral and intellectual power, adapted to the 
times and circumstances in which they lived, and with 
characters and motives to action, not only differing 
from those which predominate in other ages and 
cUmes, but of which men accustomed only to the 
common place impulses of human nature, are no more 
able to form a conception, than blindness, of the col- 
ors of the rainbow. 

Of this race of men, James Monroe was one — not 
of those who did, or could take a part in the prelim- 
inary controversy, or in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. He may be said almost to have been born 



210 LIFE OF JAM-ES MONROE. 

with the question, for at the date of the Stamp Act, 
he was m the fifth year of his age ; but he was bred 
in the school of the prophets, and nurtured in the detes- 
tation of tyranny. His patriotism out-stripped the 
fingering march of time, and at the dawn of manhood, 
he joined the standard of his country. It was at the 
very period of the Declaration of Independence, issu- 
ed as you know at the hour of severest trial to our 
country, when every aspect of her cause was unpro- 
pitious and gloomy. Mr. Monroe commenced his 
military career, as his country did that of her Inde- 
pendence, with adversity. He joined her standard 
when others were deserting it. He repaired to the 
head-quarters of Washington at New York, precisely 
at the time when Britain was pouring her thousands 
of native and foreign mercenaries upon our shores ; 
when in proportion as the battalions of invading armies 
thickened and multipfied, those of the heroic chieftain 
of our defence were dwindling to the verge of disso- 
lution. When the disastrous days of Flatbush, Hser- 
lem Heights and White Plains, were followed by the 
successive evacuation of Long Island, and New York, 
the surrender of Fort Washington, and the retreat 
through the Jersies ; till on the day devoted to cele- 
brate the birth of the Saviour of mankind, of the 
same year on which Independence was proclaimed, 
Washington, with the houseless heads, and unshod 
feet, of three thousand new and undisciplined levies, 
stood on the western bank of the Delaware, to con- 
tend in arms with the British Lion, and to baffle the 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 211 

skill and energy of the chosen champions of Britain, 
with ten times the number of his shivering and ema- 
ciate host ; the stream of the Delaware, forming the 
only barrier between the proud array of thirty thou- 
sand veteran Britons, cind the scanty remnant of his 
dissolving bands. Then it was that the glorious lead- 
er of our forces struck the blow which decided the 
issue of the war. Then it was that the myriads of 
Britain's warriors were arrested in their career of 
victory, by the hundreds of our gallant defenders, as 
the sling of the shepherd of Israel prostrated the 
Philistine, who defied the armies of the living God. 
And in this career both of adverse and of prosperous 
fortune, James Monroe was one of that little Spartan 
band, scarcely more numerous, though in the event 
more prosperous, than they who fell at Thermopylae. 
At the Heights of Hairlem, at the White Plains, at 
Trenton he was present, and in leading the vanguard, 
at Trenton, received a ball, which sealed his patriotic 
devotion to his country's freedom with his blood. The 
superintending Providence which had decreed that on 
that, and a swiftly succeeding day, Mercer, and Hase- 
let, and Porter, and Neal, and Fleming, and Shippen, 
should join the roll of warlike dead, martyrs to the 
cause of liberty, reserved Monroe for higher services, 
and for a long and illustrious career, in war and in 
peace. 

Recovered from his wound, and promoted in rank, 
as a reward for his gallantry and suffering in the field, 
he soon returned to the Army, and served in the 



212 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

character of Aid-de-Camp to Lord Sterling, through 
the campaigns of 1777 and 1778 : during which, he 
was present and distinguished in the actions of Bran- 
dywine, Germantown and Monmouth. But, having 
by this been superseded in his Ifheal rank in the Army, 
he withdrew from it, and faiUng, from the exhausted 
state of the country, in the effort to raise a regiment, 
for which, at the recommendation of Washington, he 
had been authorized by the Legislature of Virginia, 
he resumed the study of the law, under the friendly 
direction of the illustrious Jefferson, then Governor 
of that Commonwealth. In the succeeding years, he 
served occasionally as a volunteer, in defence of the 
State, against the distressing invasions with which it 
was visited, and once, after the fall of Charleston, 
South Carolina, in 1780, at the request of Governor 
Jeflferson, repaired, as a military commissioner, to 
collect and report information with regard to the con- 
dition and prospects of the southern Army and States; 
a trust, which he discharged to the entire satisfaction 
of the Governor and Executive, by whom it had been 
committed to him. 

In 1782, he was elected a member of the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia, and, by them, a member of the 
Executive Council. On the 9th of June, 1783, he 
was chosen a member of the Congress of the United 
States ; and, on the thirteenth of December, of the 
same year, took his seat in that body, at Annapolis, 
where his first act was, to sit as one of those repre- 
sentatives of the nation into whose hands the victorious 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 213 

leader of the American Armies surrendered his com- 
mission. Mr. MoNUOE was now twenty-four years 
of age, and had already performed that, in the service 
of his country, which would have sufficed for the 
illustration of an ordinary life. 

The first fruits of his youth had been given to her 
defence in war ; the vigor and maturity of his man- 
hood was now to be devoted to her welfare in council. 
The war of Independence closed as it had begun, by 
a transaction new under the sun. The fourth of July, 
1776, had witnessed the social compact of a self-con- 
stituted nation, formed by Peace and Union, in the 
midst of a calamitous and desolating war. To carry 
that nation through this war, the sole object of which, 
thenceforward, was the perpetual establishment of 
that self-proclaimed Independence, a Standing Army 
became indispensable. Temporary levies of undisci- 
pKned militia, and enlistments for a few weeks, or 
months, were soon found inadequate for defence 
against the veteran legions of the invader. — Enlist- 
ments for three years, were finally succeeded by per- 
manent engagements of service during the war. These 
forces were disbanded at the peace. Successive bands 
of warriors had maintained a conflict of seven years' 
duration, but Washington had been the commander 
of them all. His commission, issued twelve months 
before the Declaration of Independence, had been 
commensurate with the war. He was the great mili- 
tary leader of the cause ; and so emphatically did he 
exemplify the position I have assumed,^ that Providence 



214 LIFE OF JAMBS MONROE. 

prepares the characters of men, adapted to the emer- 
gencies in which they are to be placed, that, were it 
possible for the creative power of imagination to con- 
centrate in one human individual person, the cause of 
American Independence, in all its moral grandeur and 
subUmity, that person would be no other than Wash- 
ington. His career of public service was now at an 
end. The military leaders of other ages had not so 
terminated their public lives. Gustavus Vasa, William 
of Orange, the Duke of Braganza, from chieftains of 
popular revolt, had settled into hereditary rulers over 
those whom they had contributed to emancipate. The 
habit of command takes root so deep in the human 
heart, that Washington is perhaps the only example 
in human annals of one in which it was wholly extir- 
pated. In all other records of humanity, the heroes 
of patriotism have sunk into hereditary Princes. Glo- 
rious achievements have claimed always magnificent 
rewards. Washington, receiving from his country the 
mandate to fight the battles of her freedom, assumes 
the task at once with deep humility, and undaunted 
confidence, disclaiming in advance all reward of profit, 
which it might be in her power to bestow. After 
eight years of unexampled perils, labors and achieve- 
ments, the warfare is accomplished ; the cause in 
which he had drawn his sword, is triumphant ; the in- 
dependence of his country is established ; her union 
cemented by a bond of confederation, the imperfection 
of which had not yet been disclosed ; he comes to 
the source whence he first derived his authority, and, 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 215 

in the face of mankind, surrenders the truncheon of 
command, restores the commission, the object of which 
had been so gloriously accomplished, and returns to 
mingle with the mass of his fellow citizens, in the 
retirement of private life, and the bosom of domestic 
felicity. 

Three years, from 1783 to 1786. Mr. Monroe con- 
tinued a member of the Confederate Congress, and 
had continual opportunity of observing the utter in- 
etliciency of that Compact for the preservation and 
welfare of the Union. 

The union of the North American Colonies, may 
be aptly compared to the poetical creation of the 
world : 

From Harmony — from Heavenly Harmony 

This universal frame began ; 
When Nature, underneath an heap 

Of jarring atoms lay. 

And could not heave her head — 
The tuneful voice was heard from high 
Arise, ye more than dead. 
Then cold and hot, and moist and drj'. 

In order to their stations leap, 
' And Music's power obey. 

Such with more than poetical truth, was the creation 
of the American Union. 

When on the fifth of September, 1774, a numbei 
of the delegates chosen and appointed by the several 
colonies and provinces in North America, to meet and 
hold a Congress at Philadelphia, assembled at the 
Carpenter's Hall, — on that same day, a new nation 
was created ; then, indeed, it was but in embryo. 



216 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE, 

Neither Independence, nor self-government, nor per- 
manent confederation, were of the purposes for which 
that Congress was convened. It was to draw up and 
exhibit statements of the common grievances : to 
consult and confer upon the common violated rights ; 
to address their fellow-subjects of Great Britain, and 
of the colonies, with complaint oi^ wrongs endured, 
and humbly to petition his most excellent majesty, 
their most gracious sovereign, for redress. These 
purposes were performed, and totally failed of suc- 
cess ; but the Union was formed ; the seed of Inde- 
pendence was sown ; and the Congress, after a session 
of seven weeks, on the twenty-sixth of October, dis- 
solved. 

When the second Congress met, on the 10th of May 
1775, the war had already commenced : blood had 
flowed in streams at Concord and Lexington ; and 
scarcely had they been a month in session, when the 
fires of Charlestown ascended to an avenging heaven; 
and Warren fell a martyr to the cause of the Union 
before that of Independence was even born. Still, 
the powers and instructions of the delegates extend- 
ed only to concert, agree upon, direct, and order such 
further measures as should, to them, appear to be best 
calculated for the recovery and establishment of 
American rights and liberties, and for restoring har- 
mony between Great Britain and the colonies. 

These objects were pursued with steadiness, perse- 
verance, and sincerity, till the people, whom they rep- 
resented, sickened at the humiliations to which they 



].]IE OF JAMES MONROE. 217 

submitled ; till insult heaped upon injury, and injury 
superadded to insult, aggravated the burden to a point 
beyond endurance : the decree of the people went 
forth : the whole people of the United Colonies de- 
clared them Independent States : the nation was born; 
like the first of the human race, issuing, full grown 
and perfect, from the hands of his Maker. 

But while this Independence, thus declared, was to 
be maintained bv a war, — of the successful issue of 
which, all spirit, but that of heroic martyrdom, might 
well despair — all the institutions of organized author- 
ty were to be created. By an act of primitive sov- 
ereignty, the people of the colonies annihilated all the 
civil authorities by which they had been governed : 
as one corporate body, they declared themselves a mem- 
ber of the community of civilized, but independent 
nations, — acknowledging the Christian Code of natu- 
ral and conventional laws, — united, already, by sol- 
emn compact, but without organized government, 
either for the Union, or for the separate members ; 
also, corporate and associated bodies, of which it was 
composed. 

The position of the people of these colonies on that 
day, was a new thing under the sun. The nature and 
character of the war was totally changed. Their re- 
lations, individual and collective, towards one another, 
towards the government and people of Great Britain, 
towards all the rest of mankind, were changed ; they 
were men in society, and yet had reverted to the state 
of nature ; they had no government, no fundamental 



218 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

laws. Inhabiting a territory more extensive than all 
Europe, previously divided into thirteen communities, 
Uttle sympathizing with one another, and actuated by 
principles more of mutual repulsion, than attraction, 
with elements for legislation not only various, but hos- 
tile to each other, they were called at one and the 
same time to wage a war of unparalleled difficulty 
and danger. To transfer their duties of allegiance, 
and their rights of protection from the Sovereign of 
their birth to the new republic of their own creation ; 
and to rebuild the superstructure of civil society, by 
a complicated government, adequate to their wants ; 
a firm, compact and energetic whole, composed of 
thirteen entire independent parts. The first and most 
urgent of their duties, because in its nature it admit- 
ted of no delay, was to provide for the maintenance 
and conduct of the war ; but with all its difficulties, 
that was the least ardous of their duties. To organ- 
ize the government of a mighty empire, was a task 
which had never before been performed by man. The 
undertaking formed an era in the annals of the human 
race ; an era far surpassing in importance all others 
since the appearance of the Saviour upon earth. 

There were fortunately a few fundamental princi- 
ples upon which there was among the proclaimers of 
Independence, a perfect unanimity of opinion. The 
first of these was that the Union already formed be- 
tween the Colonies should be permanent — perpetual 
— indissoluble. The second, that it should be a con- 
federated Union, of which each Colony should be an 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 219 

independent State. Self governed by its own muni- 
cipal Code — but of which each citizen, should be also 
a citizen of the whole. The third, that the whole 
confederation, and each of its members, should be re- 
publican ; without hereditary monarch, without privi- 
leged orders. On the tenth of May, preceding the 
Declaration of Independence, Congress had passed a 
resolution, recommending to the several Colonies to 
adopt such government as should, in the opinion of 
the Representatives of the people, best conduce to 
the happiness and safety of their constituents in par- 
ticular, and America in general ; and in the preamble 
tb this Resolution, adopted five days later, they assign- 
ed as the reason for it the necessity that the exercise 
of every kind of authority under the crown of Great 
Britain, should be totally suppressed, and all the pow- 
ers of government exercised under the authority of the 
PEOPLE of the Colonies. 

And on the eleventh of June, 1776, the same day 
upon which the Committee was appointed to report 
the Declaration of Independence, it was resolved to 
appoint another Committee to prepare and digest the 
form of a confederation to be entered into between 
the colonies, and a third Committee to prepare a plan 
of treaties to be proposed to foreign powers. 

Thus far there had been no diversity of opinion 
among those whose minds were made up for the Dec- 
laration of Independence. The people of each colony 
were to construct their own form of Government : a 

form of Confederation was to be prepared for the 

10 



220 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

whole. The history of mankind, ancient and modern 
presented several examples of confederated StateSy 
not one of a confederated Gomrnment ; and even of 
former confederations there was not one which ex- 
tended over a territory equal to that of one member 
of the American Union. For a confederated Govern- 
ment, the people of the colonies were utterly unpre- 
pared. The constitutions of the States were formed 
without much difficulty, and, after more than half a 
century, although we have witnessed frequent and 
numerous changes in their organization, there have 
been scarcely any of important principle. The great 
features of the political system upon which American 
Independence was declat'ed, remained unchanged — 
bright in immortal youth. For Union, for Indepen- 
dence, for self-government, the elements were all at 
hand, and they were homogeneous. There was no 
seed of discord and of strife among them. For the 
structure of the confederacy it was not so. There 
was first a general spirit of distrust and jealousy 
against the investment of the federal head with pow- 
er. There were then local and sectional prejudices, 
interests, and passions, tending to reciprocal discon- 
tents and enmities. There were diversities in the 
tenure and character of property in the different 
States, not altogether harmonizing with the cause of 
Independence itself. There were controversies of 
boundaries between many of the contiguous colonies, 
and questions of deeper vitality, to whom the extra- 
territorial lands, without the bounds of the colonial 



LIFE OF JAMES MOAROE. 221 

charters, but within the compass of the federative 
domain, would belong 1 So powerfully did these 
causes of discord operate, even in the midst of the 
struggle for Independence, that nearly five years 
elapsed after the Declaration, before the consent of 
the States could be obtained to the Articles of Con- 
federation. 

This experiment, as is well known, proved a total 
failure. The Articles of Confederation were ratified 
by ten of the States as early as July, 1778. Mary- 
land withheld her assent to them until March, 1781, 
when it first went into operation : and even then one 
of its principal defects was so generally perceived 
and foreseen, that on the preceding third of February, 
Congress had adopted a resolution, declaring it indis- 
pensably necessary that they should be vested with a 
power to levy an impost duty of five per cent, to pay 
the public debt. Even this power some of the States 
refused to grant. 

In December, 1783, when Mr. Monroe took his seat 
in Congress, the first act of that body should have 
been to ratify the definitive treaty of peace with 
Great Britain, w^hich had been signed at Paris on the 
preceding third of September. That treaty was the 
transaction which closed the revolutionary war, and 
settled forever the question of American Indepen- 
dence. It was stipulated that its ratifications should 
be exchanged within six months from the day of its 
signature ; and we can now scarcely believe it pos- 
sible, that but for a mere accident, the faith of the 



222 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

nation would have been violated, and the treaty itself 
cancelled, for want of a power in Congress to pass it 
through the mere formalities of ratification. By the 
articles of confederation, no treaty could be concluded 
without the assent of nine States. — Against the rati- 
fication there was not a voice throughout the Union ; 
but only seven States were assembled in Congress. 
Then came a captious debate, whether the act of rati- 
fication was a mere formality for which seven States 
were as competent as nine, or whether it was the 
very medullary substance of a Treaty, which, unless ^ 
assented to by nine States, would be null and void — ^a 
monstrous and tyrannical usurpation. 

All the powers of government, in free countries, 
emanate from the people : all organized and operative 
power exists by delegation from the people. Upon 
these two pillars is erected the whole fabric of our 
freedom. That all exercise of organized power should 
be for the benefit of the people, is the first maxim of 
government ; and in the delegation of power to the 
government, the problem to be solved is the most ex- 
tensive possible grant of power to be exercised for 
the common good ; with the most effective possible 
guard against its abuse to the injury of any one. Our 
fathers, who formed the confederation, witnesses to 
the recent abuse of organized power, and sufferers by 
it, mistook the terms of the problem before them, and 
thought that the only security against the abuse of 
power, was stinginess of grant jn its organization : not 
duly considering that power not delegated, cannot be 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 223 

exercised for the common good, and that the denial of 
it, to their government, is equivalent to the abdica- 
tion of it by themselves. All impotence of the gov- 
ernment, therefore, thus becomes the impotence of 
the people who formed it ; and in its result places the 
nation itself on a footing of inferiority, compared with 
others in the community of independent nations. Nor 
did they sufficiently foresee that this excessive cau- 
tion to withhold beneficent power in the organic frame 
of government, necessarily and unavoidably leads to 
usurpation of it. The ordinance for the Government 
of the North-western Territory, was a signal exam- 
ple of this course of things under the Articles of Con- 
federation. A perusal of the journals of Congress, 
public and secret, from the year 1778, when the Arti- 
cles of Confederation were completed, and partially 
adopted, till 1789, when they were superseded by the 
present Constitution of the United States, will give 
the liveliest and most perfect idea of the character of 
the Confederation, and of the condition of the Union 
under it. Among the mischievous consequences of 
the inability of Congress to administer the affairs of 
the Union, was the waste of time and talents of the 
most eminent patriots of the country, in captious, ir- 
ritating and fruitless debates. The commerce, the 
public debt, the fiscal concerns, the foreign relations, 
the public lands, the obligations to the revolutionary 
veterans, the intercourse of war and peace with the 
Indian tribes, were all subjects upon which the benefi- 
cent action of Congress was necessary ; while at ev- 



224 lilFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

ery step, and upon every subject, they were met by 
the same insurmountable barriers of interdicted or 
undelegated power. These observations may be deem- 
ed not inappropriate to the apology for Mr. Monroe, 
and for all the distinguished patriots associated with 
him during his three years of service m the Congress 
of the Confederation, in contemplating the slender re- 
sults of benefit to the public in all the service which 
it was possible for them, thus cramped and crippled, 
to render. 

Within the appropriate sphere of action, however, 
to which the powers of Congress were competent Mr. 
Monroe took a distinguished part. That body often 
resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, to de- 
liberate upon an empty Treasury, upon accumulating 
debts, and clamorous creditors ; upon urgent recom- 
mendations to the State Legislatures, which some of 
them would adopt, simply, and some conditionally ; 
others, indefinite!}'" postpone ; some, leave without 
answer ; and others, sturdily reject. This Commit- 
tee of the Whole referred every knotty subject to a 
Select Committee, from whom they would in due 
time receive an able, and thoroughly reasoned Re- 
port, which they would debate by paragraphs, and fi- 
nally reject for some other debatable substitute, or 
adopt with numerous amendments, and after many a 
weary record of yeas and nays. 

On the eighteenth of April, 1783, the Resolution 
of Congress had passed, declaring it absolutely ne- 
cessary that they should be vested with a power to 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 225 

levy an impost of five per cent. On the thirteenth 
of April, 1784, another Resolution was adopted, re- 
commending to the Legislature of the States to grant 
to Congress the power of regulating commerce. And 
on the 13th of July, 1785, Congress debated the Re- 
port of a Committee of which Mr. Monroe was the 
Chairman, combining the objects of both those prior 
resolutions, and proposing such alteration of the Ar- 
ticles of the Confederation, as was necessary to vest 
Congress with the power both to regulate commerce, 
and to levy an impost duty. These measures were 
not abortive, inasmuch as they were progressive steps 
in the march towards bettor things. They led first to 
the partial convention of delegates from five States, 
at Annapolis, in September 1786 ; and then to the 
general convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, which 
prepared and proposed the Constitution of the United 
States. Whoever contributed to that event, is justly 
entitled to the gratitude of the present age, as a pub- 
lic benefactor ; and among them the name of Monroe 
should be conspicuously enrolled. 

Among the very few powers which, by the Arti- 
cles of Confederation, had been vested in Congress, 
was that of constituting a Court of Commissioners, 
selected from its own body, to decide upon any dis- 
puted question of boundary jurisdiction, or any other 
cause whatever, between any two States in the 
Union. These Commissioners were in the first in- 
stance, to be chosen, with mutual consent, by the 
agents of the two States, parties to the controversy ; 



226 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

the final determination of which was submitted to 
them. 

Such a controversy had taken place between the 
States of Massachusetts and New York, the agents 
of which attending in Congress in December, 1784, 
agreed upon nine persons, to constitute the federal 
court, to decide the question between the parties. Of 
these nine persons, James Monroe was one : a dis- 
tinction, in the 26th year of his age, indicating the 
high estimation in which he was already held through- 
out the Union. The subsequent history of this con- 
troversy to its final and friendly settlement, aflbrds an 
illustration coinciding with numberless others, of the 
imbecility of the confederacy. On the twenty-first 
of March, 1785, Congress were informed by a letter 
from Mr. Monroe, that he accepted the appointment 
of one of the Judges of the Federal Court, to decide 
the controversy. On the 9th of June following, the 
agents from the contending States reported to Con- 
gress that they had agreed upon three persons, whom 
they named, as Judges of the federal Court, instead 
of three of those who had been appointed the prece- 
ding December, but had declined accepting their ap- 
pointment : and the agents requested that a commis- 
sion might be issued to the Court, as finally constituted 
to meet at Williamsburg, in Virginia, on the third 
Tuesday of November, then next, to hear and deter- 
mine the controversy. 

On the second of November, of the same year, a 
representation was made by the agents of the two 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 227 

States to Congress, that such had been the difficulties 
and delays in obtaining answers from several of the 
Judges, that the parties were left in suspense even to 
that hour ; a hearing had thus been prevented, and 
further procrastination was unavoidable. They peti- 
tioned, therefore, that the hearing should be remitted 
to such a day as the parties should agree upon, and 
thereafter certify to Congress — and a Resolution pass- 
ed accordingly. 

On the fifteenth of May, 1780, a letter was receiv- 
ed by Congress from Mr. Monroe, informing them 
that some circumstances would put it out of his power 
to act as a Judge for the decision of this controversy, 
and resigning his commission. 

On the twenty-seventh of September following. 
Congress were informed by the agents of the parties, 
that they had agreed upon a person to be a Judge, in 
the place of Mr. Monroe, and they requested that a 
new commission might be issued to the Court. The 
Court never met, for on the sixteenth of December, 
1786, the litigating parties, by their respective agents 
at Hartford, in Connecticut, settled the controversy 
by agreement, between themselves, and to their mu- 
tual satisfaction. Of this the agents gave notice to 
Congress on the eighth of October. 1787, and they 
moved that the attested copy of the agreement be- 
tween the two States, which they laid before Con- 
gress, should be filed in the Secretary's office — which 
was refused ; that body declining even to keep upon 

their files the evidence of an accord between two 

10* 



228 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

members of the Union, concluded otherwise than as 
the Articles of Confederation had prescribed. 

Mr. Monroe did not assign, in his letter to Congress, 
his reasons for resigning the trust which he had pre- 
viously consented to assume. They were probably 
motives of deUcacy, highly creditable to his charac- 
ter : motives, flowing from a source 

" Beyond the fix'd and settled rules 
Of vice and virtue in the schools : " 

motives, eminating from a deep and conscientious 
morality, of which men of coarser minds are denied 
the perception, and which, while exerting unresisted 
sway over the conduct actuated by them, retire into 
the self-conviction of their own purity. Between the 
period when Mr. Monroe had accepted, and that 
when he withdrew from the office of a Judge between 
the States of Massachusetts and New York, discus- 
sions had arisen in Congress, relating to a negotiation 
with Spain, in the progress of which, varying views 
of public policy were sharpened and stimulated by 
varying sectional interests, to a point of painful col- 
lision. 

After the conclusion of the general peace at Paris, 
in 1783, Spain, then a feeble and superannuated mon- 
archy, governed by corrupt, profligate and perfidious 
councils, possessed with other colonies of stupendous 
territorial extent, the mouths of the Mississippi, and 
both the shores of that father of the floods, from his 
first entrance into this continent, to a considerable ex- 



l.IPE OF JAMES MONROE. 229 

tent inland. Above the thirty-first degree of latitude, 
the territorial settlements of the United States were 
spreading in their incipient but gigantic infancy, along 
his eastern banks and on both shores of the mighty 
rivers, which contribute to his stream. Spain, by 
virtue of a conventional, long settled, but abusive 
principle of international law, disavowed by the law 
of nature, interdicted the downward navigation of the 
Mississippi to the borders upon the shores above her 
line ; on the bare plea that both sides of the river 
were within her domain at the mouth. And well 
knowing that the navigation was equivalent almost to 
a necessary of life to the American settlers above, 
she formed the project at once of dallying negotiation 
with the new American Republic, to purchase by 
some commercial privilege, her assent to a temporary 
exclusion from the navigation of the Mississippi, and of 
tampering with the same American settlers, to seduce 
them from their allegiance to their own country, by 
the prospect of enjoying under her dominion as Span- 
ish subjects, the navigation of the river, from which 
they were excluded as citizens of the United States. 

In the collision between the claim of the United 
States of right to navigate the Mississippi by the laws 
of nature, and the treaty of peace with Great Britain, 
and the actual interdiction of that navigation by 
Spain, founded upon the usages of nations, hostilities 
between the two nations had already taken place. A 
citizen of the United States descending the Mississippi, 
had been seized and imprisoned at Natchez ; and a 



230 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

retalitory seizure of the Spanish post at Vincennes 
had been effected by citizens of the United States, 
According to all appearances, an immediate war with 
Spain, for the navigation of the Mississippi, or a com- 
promise of the question by negotiation, was the only 
alternative which Congress had before them, and here 
again appeared a melancholy manifestation of the 
imbecihty of the Union under the Articles of Confed- 
eration. 

A diplomatic agent of the lowest order, under the 
title of Encai-gardo de JVegocios, had been appointed 
by the king of Spain to reside in the United States, 
and had been with much formality received by Con- 
gress, in July, 1785. Though possessed of full pow- 
ers to conclude a treaty, he had not the rank of a 
Minister Plenipotentiary, and his title, otherwise un- 
exampled in European diplomacy, was significant of 
the estimation in which his Catholic Majesty held the 
new American Republic. Immediately after his re- 
ception, the Secretary of Congress for Foreign Af- 
fairs, John Jay, of New York, was commissioned to 
negotiate with the Spanish Encargardo ; but instruct- 
ed, previously to his making propositions to the Span- 
iard, or agreeing with him on any article, compact or 
convention, to communicate the same to Congress. 
On the 25th of August ensuing, this instruction was 
repealed, and another substituted in its place, directing 
him in his plan of treaty, particularly to stipulate the 
rir^ht of the United States to their territorial bounds 
and the free navigation of the Mississippi, from the 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 231 

source to the ocean, as established in their treaties 
with Great Britain ; and to conclude no treaty, com- 
pact or convention with Mr. Gardoqui, without pre- 
viously communicating it to Congress, and receiving 
their approbation. 

The navigation of the Mississippi soon proved an 
insurmountable bar to the progress of the negotiation. 
It was, de facto, interdicted by Spain. The right to 
it could be enforced only by war, and violence on 
both sides had already taken place. Spain denied the 
right of the people of the United States to navigate 
the Mississippi as pertinaciously and in as lofty a tone 
as Great Britain denies to us, on the same pretence, 
to this day, the right of navigating the St. Lawrence. 
After many ineffectual conferences with the Spanish 
negotiator, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs request- 
ed further instructions from Congress, and in a per- 
sonal address to that body, recommended to them a 
compromise with Spain, by the proposal of a com- 
mercial treaty in which for an adequate equivalent of 
commercial advantages to the United States, they, 
without renouncing the right to the navigation of the 
Mississippi, should stipulate a forbearance of the exer- 
cise of that right for a term of twenty-five or thirty 
years, to which the duration of the treaty should be 
limited. 

This proposal excited the most acrimonious and 
irritated struggle between the delegations from the 
Northern and Southern divisions of the Union, which 
had ever occurred. The representation from the 



232 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

seven Northern States, unanimously agreeing to au- 
thorize the stipulation recommended by the Secre- 
tary, and the five Southern States, with the exception 
of one member, being equally earnest for rejecting it. 
The State of Delaware was not then represented. 
In the animated and passionate debates, on a series of 
questions originating in this inauspicious controversy, 
the delegates from Massachusetts, and among them 
especially Rufus King, took a warm and distinguished 
part in favor of the proposition of the Secretary, 
while the opposition to it was maintained with an ear- 
nestness equally intense, and with ability not less 
powerful by the delegation from Virginia, and among 
them, pre-eminently, by Mr. Monroe. In reviewing 
at this distance of time the whole subject, a candid 
and impartial observer cannot fail to perceive that 
much of the bitterness which mingled itself unavoid- 
ably in the contest, arose from the nature of the Con- 
federacy, and the predominant obligation under which 
each delegate felt himself to maintain the interests of 
his own State and section of the Union. The adverse 
interests and opposite views of poUcy brought into 
conflict by these transactions, produced a coldness 
and mutual alieniation between the Northern and 
Southern divisions of the Union, which is not extin- 
guished to this day. It gave rise to rankling jealousies 
and festering prejudices, not only of the North and 
South against each other, but of each section against 
the ablest and most virtuous patriots of the other. 
As by the Articles of Confederation, no treaty could 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 233 

be concluded but with the concurrence of nine States, 
the authority to make the proposal recommended by 
the Secretary was not given. The negotiation with 
Spain was transferred to the Government of the Uni- 
ted States, as org^anized by the present National Con- 
stitution. The right of navigating the Mississippi 
from its source to the ocean, with a deposit at New 
Orleans, was within seven years thereafter, conceded 
to the United States by Spain, in a solemn treaty, and 
within twenty years from the negotiation with the 
Encargardo, the Mississippi himself with all his waters 
and all his shores, had passed from the dominion of 
Spain, and become part of the United States. 

In all the proceedings relating to the navigation of 
the Mississippi, from the reception of Mr. Gardoqui, 
till the acquisition of Louisiana and its annexation to 
the United States, the agency of Mr. Monroe was 
conspicuous above all others. He took the lead in 
the opposition to the recommendation of Mr. Jay. 
He signed, in conjunction with another eminent citi- 
zen of the State of New York, Robert R. Livingston, 
the Treaty which gave us Louisiana : and during his 
administration, as President of the United States, the 
cession of the Floridas was consummated. His sys- 
tem of poHcy, relating to this great interest, was ulti- 
mately crowned with complete success. That which 
he opposed, might have severed or dismembered the 
Union. Far be it from me ; far, I know, would it be 
from the heart of Mr. Monroe himself, to speak it, in 
censure of those illustrious statesmen, who, in the 



234 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

infancy of the nation, and in the helplessness of the 
Confederation, preferred a temporary forbearance of 
a merely potential and interdicted right, to the ap- 
parent and imminent prospect of unavoidable war. 
Let those who would censure them look to the cir- 
cumstances of the times, and to the honest partialities 
of their own bosoms, and then extend to the memory 
of those deceased benefactors of their country that 
candor, in the construction of conduct and imputation 
of motives, which they will hereafter assuredly need 
themselves. 

It was in the heat of the temper, kindled by this 
cause of discord, in the federal councils, that Mr. 
Monroe resigned his commission as a judge between 
the States of Massachusetts and New York. The 
opinions of both those States, indeed coincided togeth- 
er, in variance from that which he entertained upon 
the absorbing interest of the right to navigate the 
Mississippi. But he beheld their co-untenance — " that 
it was not toward him as before," He felt there was 
no longer the same confidence in the dispositions of 
North arid South to each other, which had existed 
when the selection of him had been made ; and he 
withdrew from the invidious duty of deciding be- 
tween parties, with either of whom he no longer en- 
joyed the satisfaction of a cordial harmony. 

By the Articles of Confederation no delegate in 
Congress was eligible to serve more than three years 
in six. Towards the close of 1786, the term of Mr. 
Monroe's service in that capacity expired. During 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 235 

that term, and while Congress were in session at New 
York, he formed a matrimonial connexion with Miss 
Kortright, daughter of Mr. L. Kortright of an an- 
cient and respectable family of that state. This lady, 
of whose personal attractions and accomplishments it 
were impossible to speak in terms of exaggeration, 
was, for a period little short of half a century, the 
cherished and affectionate partner of his life and for- 
tunes. She accompanied him in all his journeyings 
through this world of care, from which, by the dis- 
pensation of Providence, she had been removed on- 
ly a few months before himself. The companion of 
his youth was the solace of his declining years, and 
to the close of life enjoyed the testimonial of his af- 
fection, that with the external beauty and elegance of 
deportment, conspicuous to all who were honored 
with her acquaintance, she united the more precious 
and endearing qualities which mark the fulfilment of 
all the social duties, and adorn with grace, and fill 
with enjoyment, the tender relations of domestic 
life. 

After his retirement from service in the Confedera- 
tion Congress, assuming, with a view to practice at 
the bar, a temporary residence at Fredericksburgh, 
he was almost immediately elected to a seat in the 
Legislature of Virginia ; and the ensuing year, to the 
Convention, summoned in that Commonwealth, to 
discuss and decide upon the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States. 

Mr. Monroe was deeply penetrated with the con- 



236 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

viction that a great and radical change, in the Articles 
of Confederation, was indispensable, even for the 
preservation of the Union. But, in common with 
Patrick Henry, George Mason, and many other patri- 
archs of the Revolution, his mind was not altogether 
prepared for that which was, in truth, a revolution 
far greater than the severance of the United Ameri- 
can Colonies from Great Britain : a revolution accom- 
plishing that which the Declaration of Independence 
had only conceived and proclaimed : substituting a 
Constitution of Government for a people, instead of a 
mere Confederation of States. So great and momen- 
tous was this change, so powerful the mass of patriot- 
ism and wisdom, as well as of interest, prejudice and 
passion, arrayed against it, that we should hazard lit- 
tle, in considering the final adoption and establishment 
of the Constitution, as the greatest triumph of pure 
and peaceful intellect, recorded in the annals of the 
human race. By the Declaration of Independence 
the people of the United States had assumed and an- 
nounced to the world their united personality as a Na- 
tion, consisting of thirteen Independent States. They 
had thereby assumed the exercise of primitive sover- 
eign power : that is to say, the sovereignty of the 
people. The administrative power of such a people, 
could, however, be exercised only by delegation. 

Their first attempt was to exercise it by confining 
the powers of government to the separate members of 
the Union, and delegating only the powers of a con- 
federacy to the collective body. This experiment 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 237 

was deliberately and thoroughly made and totally fail- 
ed. In other ages and other climes the consequences 
of that failure would have been anarchy : complicated 
and long continued wars : perhaps, ultimately, one 
consolidated military monarchy — elective or heredita- 
ry : perhaps two or three confederacies — always mil- 
itant ; with border wars, occasionally intermitted, 
with barrier treaties, impregnable fortresses, rivers 
hermetically sealed, and the close sea of a Pacific 
Ocean. One Standing Army would have bred its an- 
tagonist, and between thetn they would have engen- 
dered a third, to sit like chaos at the gates of Hell, 

" Umpire of the strife, 
And, by decision, more embroil the fray." 

Not so did the people of the North American Union. 
They adhered to their first experiment of Confedera- 
cy, till it was falling to pieces, in its immedicable weak- 
ness. After frequent, long and patient ineffectual 
struggles to sustain and strengthen it, a small and se- 
lect body of them, by authority of a few of the State 
Legislatures, convened together to confer upon the 
evils which the country was suffering, and to consult 
upon the remedy to be proposed. This body advised 
the Assembly of a Convention, in which all the States 
should be represented. Eleven of them did so as- 
semble, with Washington at their head ; with Frank- 
lin, Madison, Hamilton, King, Langdon, Sherman, 
John Rutledge, and compeers of fame, scarcely less 
resplendent, for members. They immediately per- 



238 l-IFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

ceived that the Union, and a mere Confederacy, were 
incompatible things. They proposed, prepared and 
presented, for acceptance, a Constitution of Govern- 
ment for the whole people : a plan, retaining so much 
of the federative character, as to preserve, unimpair- 
ed, the independent and wholesome action of the sep- 
arate State Governments ; and infusing into the whole 
body the vital energy necessary for free and efficient 
action upon all subjects of common interest and na- 
tional concernment. This plan was then submitted to 
the examination, scrutiny and final judgment of the 
people, assembled by Representative Conventions, in 
every State of the Confederacy. To the small portion 
of my auditory, whose memory can retrace the path 
of lime back to that eventful period, I appeal for the 
firm belief that, when that plan was first exhibited to 
the solemn consideration of the people, though presen- 
ted by a body of men, enjoying a mass of public con- 
fidence far greater than any other, of equal numbers,^ 
then living, could have possessed, it was yet, by a con- 
siderable, not to say a large numerical majority, of 
the whole people, sincerely, honestly and heartily dis- 
approved. It was disapproved, not only by all those 
who perseveringly adhered to the rejection of it, but 
by great numbers of those who reluctantly voted for 
accepting it ; considering it then as the only alterna- 
tive to a dissolution of the union : and of those who 
voted for it, of its most ardent and anxious supporters, 
it may, with equal confidence be affirmed, that no one 
ever permitted his imagination to anticipate, or his 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 239 

hopes to conceive the extent of the contrast in the 
condition of the North American people under that 
new social compact, with what it had been under the 
Confederation which it was to supersede. 

It was, doubtless, among the dispensations of a wise 
and beneficent Providence, that the severe and perti- 
nacious investigation of this Constitution, as a whole, 
and in all its minutest parts, by the Convention of all 
the States, and in the admirable papers of the Feder- 
alist, should precede its adoption and establishment. 
It may be truly said to have passed through an ordeal 
of more than burning ploughshares. Never, in the 
action of a whole people, was obtained so signal a tri- 
umph of cool and deliberate judgment, over ardent 
feeling, and honest prejudices : and never was a peo- 
ple more signally rewarded for so splendid an exam- 
ple of popular self-control. 

That Mr. Monroe, then, was one of those enlight- 
ened, faithful and virtuous patriots, who opposed the 
adoption of the Constitution, can no more detract from 
the eminence of his talents, or the soundness of his 
principles, than the project for the temporary aban- 
donment of the right to navigate the Mississippi, can 
impair those of the eminent citizens of New York 
and Massachusetts, by whom that measure was pro- 
posed. During a Statesman's life, an estimate of his 
motives will necessarily mingle itself with every 
judgment upon his conduct, and that judgment will 
often be swayed more by the concurring or adverse 
passions of the observer, than by reason, or even by 



240 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

the merits of the cause. Candor, in the estimate of 
motives, is rarely the virtue of an adversary ; but it 
is an indispensable duty before the definitive tribunal 
of posthumous renovi^n. 

When in the Legislature of Virginia, the question 
was discussed of the propriety of calling a State Con- 
vention to decide upon the Constitution of the United 
States, Mr. Monroe took no part in the debate. He 
then doubted of the course which it would be most 
advisable to pursue. — Whether to adopt the Constitu- 
tion in the hope that certain amendments which he 
deemed necessary, would afterwards be obtained, or 
to suspend the decision upon the Constiution itself, 
until those amendments should have been secured. 
When elected to the Convention, he expressed those 
doubts to his constituents assembled at the polls ; but 
his opinion having afterwards and before the meeting 
of the Convention, settled into a conviction, that the 
amendments should precede the acceptance of the 
Constitution, he addressed to his constituents a letter, 
stating his objections to that instrument, which letter 
was imperfectly printed, and copies of it were sent by 
him to several distinguished characters, among whom 
were General Washington, Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. 
Madison, who viewed it with liberality and candor. 

In the Convention, Mr. Monroe took part in the de- 
bate, and in one of his speeches entered fully into the 
merits of the subject. He was decidedly for a change, 
and a very important one, in the- then existing sys- 
tem ; but the Constitution reported, had in his opinion 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 241 

defects requiring amendment, which should be made 
before its adoption. 

The Convention, however, by a majority of less 
than ten votes of one hundred and seventy, resolved 
to adopt the Constitution, with a proposal of amend- 
ments to be engrafted upon it. Such too, was the 
definitive conclusion in all the other States, although 
two of them lingered one or two years after it was in 
full operation by authority of all the rest, before their 
acquiescence in the decision. 

By the course which Mr. Monroe had pursued on 
this great occasion, although it left him for a short 
time in the minority, yet he lost not the confidence 
either of the people or of the Legislature of Virginia. 
At the organization of the government of the United 
States, the first Senators from that State, were Rich- 
ard Henry Lee and William Grayson. The decease 
of the latter in December, 1789, made a vacancy 
which was immediately supplied by the election of 
Mr. Monroe ; and in that capacity he served until 
May, 1794 when he was appointed, at the nomination 
of President Washington, Minister Plenipotentiary to 
the Republic of France. 

The two great parties which so long divided the 
feelings and the councils of our common country, un- 
der the denominations of Federal and anti-Federal, 
orisinated with the Union. — The Union itself had been 
formed by the impulse of an attraction irresistable as 
the adamant of the magnet and scarcely less mystical. 
It was an union however of subject colonies, then 



242 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

making no claim or pretension to sovereign power. 
But from the hour of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, it became necessary to provide for the perpe- 
tuity of the Union, and to organize the administration 
of its affairs. The extent of power to be conferred 
on the representative body of the Union, became from 
that instant an object of primary magnitude, dividing 
opinions and feelings. Union was desired by all — but 
many were averse even to a confederacy. They 
would have had a league or alliance, offensive and de- 
fensive, but not even a permanent cenfederacy or 
Congress. It was the party which anxiously urged 
the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, who 
thereby acquired the appellation of Federalists, as 
their adversaries were known by the name of Anti- 
Federalists. To show the influence of names over 
things, we may remark that M^hen the Constitution of 
the United States was debated, it formed the first 
great and direct issue between the parties^ which 
retained their names, but had in reality completely 
changed sides. The Federalists of the Confederacy 
had abandoned that sinking ship. They might then 
with much more propriety have been called National- 
ists. The real Federalists were the opposers of the 
Constitution ; for they adhered to the principle, and 
most of them would have been willing to amend the 
Articles of Confederation. This incongruity of nan->e 
shortly afterwards became so glaring, that the Anti- 
Federalists laid theirs aside, and assumed the name 
sometimes of Repubhcans and sometimes of Demo- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 243 

crats. The name of Republicans is not a suitable 
denomination of a party of the United States, because 
it impHes an offensive and unjust imputation upon their 
opponents, as if they were not also Republicans. The 
truth is, as it was declared by Thomas Jefferson, all 
are, and from the Declaration of Independence have 
been, Republicans. Speculative opinions in favor of 
a more energetic government on one side, and of a 
broader range of Democratic rule on the other, have 
doubtless been entertained by individuals, but both 
parties have been disposed to exercise the full measure 
of their authority when in power, and both have been 
equally refractory to the mandates of authority when 
out. In the primitive principles of the parties, the 
Federahsts were disposed to consider the first princi- 
ple of Society to be the preservation of order ; while 
their opponents viewed the benefit above all others in 
the enjoyment of liberty. The first explosion of the 
French Revolution, was cotemporaneous with the 
first organization of the government of the United 
States ; and France and Great Britain shortly after- 
wards involved in a war of unparalleled violence and 
fury. It was a war of opinions ; in which France 
assumed the attitude of champion for freedom, and 
Britain that of social order throughout the civflized 
world. While under these pretences, all sense of 
justice was banished from the councils and conduct 
of both ; and both gave loose to the frenzy of bound- 
less ambition, rapacity and national hatred and re- 
venge. The foundations of the great deep were 

11 



244 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

broken up. The two elementary principles of human 
society were arrayed in conflict with each other, and 
not yet, not at this hour is that warfare accomplished. 
Freedom and order were also the elementary princi- 
ples of the parties in the American Union, and as 
they respectively predominated, each party sympa- 
thized with one or the other of the great European 
combatants. And thus the party movements in our 
own country became complicated with the sweeping 
hurricane of European politics and wars. The divis- 
ion was deeply seated in the cabinet of Washington. — 
It separated his two principal advisers, and he en- 
deavored without success, to hold an even balance 
between them. It pervaded the councils of the 
Union, the two Houses of Congress, the Legislatures 
of the States, and the people throughout the land. 
The first partialities of the nation were in favor of 
France ; prompted both by the remembrances of the 
recent war for American Independence, and by the 
impression then almost universal, that her cause was 
identified with that which had so lately been our own. 
But when Revolutionary France became one great 
army ; when the first commentary upon her procla- 
mations of freedom, and her disclaimer of conquest, 
was the annexation of Belgium to her territories ; 
when the blood of her fallen monarch was but a drop 
of the fountains that spouted from her scafiblds ; when 
the goddess of liberty, in her solemn processions, was 
a prostitute ; when open atheism was avowed and 
argued in her hall of legislation, and the existence of 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 245 

an Omnipotent God was among the Decrees of her 
National Convention, then horror and disgust took 
the place of admiration and hope in the minds of the 
American Federalists. Then France became to them 
an object of terror and dismay, and Britain, as her 
great and steadfast antagonist, the solitary anchor of 
their hope — the venerated bulwark of their religion. 

At the threshold of the war, Washington, not with- 
out a sharp and portentous struggle in his cabinet, 
followed by sympathetic and convulsive throes, 
throughout the Union, issued a Proclamation of neu- 
trality. Neutrality was the policy of his administra- 
tion, but neutrality was not in the heart of any por- 
tion of the American people. They had taken their 
sides, and the Republicans and the Federalists had 
now become, each at least in the view of the other, a 
French and a British faction. 

Nor was the neutrality of Washington more re- 
spected by the combatants in Europe, than it was con- 
genial to the feelings of his countrymen. The cham- 
pion oi freedom and the champion of order were alike 
regardless of the rights of others. They trampled 
upon all neutrality from the outset. The press-gang, 
the rule of war of 1756, and the order in council, 
combined to sweep all neutral commerce from the 
ocean. The requisition, the embargo, and the maxi- 
mum left scarcely a tatter of unplundered neutral 
property in France. Britain, without a blush, inter- 
dicted all neutral commerce with her enemy. France, 
under the dove-like banners of fraternity, sent an 



246 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

envoy to Washington, with the fraternal kiss upon 
his Hps, and the piratical commission in his sleeve ; 
w^ith the pectoral of righteousness on his breast, and 
the trumpet of sedition in his mouth. Within one 
year from the breaking out of hostilities between Bri- 
tain and France, the outrages of both parties upon 
the peaceful citizens of this Union, were such as would 
have amply justified war against either, and left to 
the government of Washington no alternative, but 
that or reparation. At the commencement of the 
war, the United States were represented in France 
and England by two of their most distinguished citi- 
zens, both, though in different shades, of the Fedeval 
school; by Thomas Pinckney at London, and by 
Governeur Morris in France. The remonstrance of 
Mr. Pinckney against the frantic and reckless injustice 
of the British government, were faithful, earnest and 
indefatigable ; but they were totally disregarded. Mr. 
Morris had given irremissible offence to all the revo- 
lutionary parties in France, and his recall -had been 
formally demanded. From a variety of causes, the 
popular resentments in America ran with a much stron- 
ger current against Britain than against France, and 
movements tending directly to war, were in quick 
succession following each other in Congress. Wash- 
ington arrested them by the institution of a special 
mission to Great Britain. To give it at once a con- 
ciliatory character, and to impress upon the British 
government a due sense of its importance, the person 



LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 247 

selected for this mission was John Jay, then Chief Jus- 
tice of the United States. 

James Monroe was shortly afterwards appointed 
Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of France. 
In the selection of him, the same principle of concilia- 
tion to the government near which he was accredited 
had been observed. But Washington was actuated 
also by a further motive of holding the balance be- 
tween the parties at home by this appointment. Mr. 
Jay was of the Federal party, with a bias of inclina- 
tion favorable to Britain ; Mr. Monroe, of the party 
which then began to call itself the Republican party, 
inclining to favor the cause of Republican France. 
This party was then in ardent opposition to the gen- 
eral course of Washington's administration — and that 
of Mr. Monroe in the Senate had not been inactive. 
To conciliate that party too, was an object of Wash- 
ington's most earnest solicitude. From among them 
he determined that the successor of Mr. Morris, in 
France, should be chosen, and the members of the 
Senate of that party were by him informally consul- 
ted to designate who of their number would, by re- 
ceiving the appointment, secure for it their most cor- 
dial satisfaction. Their first indication was of anoth- 
er person. Him, Washington, from a distrust of in- 
dividual character, declined to appoint. But he nomi- 
nated Mr. Monroe, and the concurrence of the Sen- 
ate in his appointment was unanimous. This incident, 
hitherto unknown to the public, has been followed by 
many consequences, some of them perhaps little sus- 



248 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

pected, in our history. The discrimination of charac- 
ter in the judgment of the first President of the Uni- 
ted States, is alike creditable to him and Mr. Monroe. 
It was not without hesitation that he availed himself 
of the preference in his fav^or, nor without the entire 
approbation of the party with whom he had acted, 
including even the individual who had been rejected 
by the prophetic prepossession of Washington. 

The cotemporaneous missions of Mr. Jay to Great 
Britain, and of Mr. Monroe to France, are among the 
most memorable events in the history of this Union. 
There are in the annals of all nations occasions, when 
wisdom and patriotism, and the brightest candor and 
the profoundest sagacity, are alike unavailing for suc- 
cess. There are sometimes elements of discord, in 
the social relations of men, which no human virtue or 
skill can reconcile. Mr. Jay and Mr. Monroe, each 
within his own sphere of action, executed with equal 
ability the trust committed to him, in the spirit of his 
appointment and of his instructions. But neutrality 
was the duty and inclination of the American ad- 
ministration, and neutrality was what neither of the 
great European combatants might endure. In the 
long history of national animosities and hatreds be- 
tween the French and British nations, there never 
was a period when they were tinged with deeper in- 
fusions of the wormwood and the gall, than at that 
precise point of time. 

Each of the parties believed herself contending for 
her national existence ; each proclaimed, perhaps be- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 249 

lieved, herself the last and only barrier, Britain against 
the subversion of social order, France against the sub- 
version of freedom throughout the world. 

Mr. Jay, in the fulfilment of his commission, con- 
cluded a Treaty with Great Britain, which established 
on immovable foundations, the neutrality proclaimed 
by Washington ; it reserved the faithful performance 
of all the previous engagements of the United Slates 
with France ; some of which were, in their operation 
at that time, not consonant with entire neutrality : 
but, in return for great concessions on the British side 
it yielded some points, also, which bore as little the 
aspect of neutrality in their operation upon France. 
Mr. Monroe, himself, favored the cause of France. 
Both Houses of Congress had passed Resolutions, 
s(!arcely consistent, at least, with impartiality, and 
Washington, under advice, perhaps over-swayed by 
the current of popular feeling, afterwards answered 
an address of the Minister of France, in words of 
like sympathy with her cause. Arriving in France, 
at the precise moment when the excesses of the revo- 
lutionary parties were on the turning spring tide of 
their highest flood, Mr. Monroe was received, with 
splendid formality, in the bosom of the National Con- 
vention, when not another civilized nation upon earth, 
had a recognized representative in France. He there 
declared. in~ perfect consistency with his instructions, 
the fraternal friendship of his country and her gov- 
ernment, for the French people, and their devoted at- 
tachment to her cause, as the cause of freedom. The 



250 LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 

President of the Convention answered him in lan- 
guage of equal kindness and cordiality ; though even 
then so little of real benevolence towards the United 
States, was there in the Committee of Public Safetv, 
then the executive power of France, that it was to 
cut short their protracted deliberations, whether Mr. 
Monroe should be received at all, that he had address- 
ed himself, in the face of the world, for an answer to 
that inquiry to the National Convention itself. Strong 
expressions of kindness are the ordinary common- 
places of the diplomatic intercourse between nations ; 
and, like the customary civilities of epistolary corres- 
pondence between individuals, they are never under- 
stood according to the full import of their meaning ; 
but extreme jealousy and suspicion at that time perva- 
ded all the public councils of France. 

She professed to be willing that the United States 
should preserve their neutrality, but she neither re- 
spected it herself nor acquiesced in the measures 
which it dictated. They were no sooner informed 
that Mr. Jay had signed a Treaty with Lord Grenville, 
than they began to press Mr. Monroe with importu 
nities to be informed, even before it had been submit- 
ted to the American Government, of all its con- 
tents. 

There is, perhaps, no position more awkward and dis- 
tressing, than that of being compelled to reject an un- 
reasonable request from those whose friendship it is 
important to retain ; for unreasonable requests are 
precisely those which will be urged with the greatest 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 251 

pertinacity. To enable Mr. Monroe to decline indulg- 
ing the Comnnittee with a copy of the Treaty, before 
it was ratified, he was under the necessity of declin- 
ing to receive a confidential communication of its 
contents from Mr. Jay. The difficulties of his situation 
became much greater after the Treaty had been rati- 
fied, and was made public. The people of the United 
States were so equally divided, with regard to the 
merits of the Treaty, that it became the principal ob- 
ject of contention between the parties, and they were 
bitterly exasperated against each other. The French 
Government, which, during the progress of these 
events, had passed from a frantic Committee of Pub- 
lic Safety, to a profligate Executive Directory, took 
advantage of these dissensions in the American Union. 
They suspended the operation of the Treaties existing 
between the United States and France ; they issued 
orders for capturing all American vessels, bound to 
British ports, or having property of their enemies on 
board ; their diplomatic correspondence exhibited a 
series of measures, ahke injurious and insulting to the 
American Government ; and they recalled their Min- 
ister from the United States, without appointing a 
successor. It was, perhaps, rather the misfortnne 
of all, than the fault of any one, that the views of 
Mr. Monroe, with regard to the policy of the Ameri- 
can Administration, did not accord with those of Pres- 
ident Washington. He thought that France had just 
cause of complaint ; and, called to the painful and in- 
vidious task of defending and justifying that which he 

11* 



252 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

personally disapproved, although he never, for a mo- 
ment, forgot the duties of his station, it was, perhaps, 
not possible that he should perform them entirely to 
the satisfaction of his Government. He was recalled, 
towards the close of Washington's administration, and 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was appointed in his 

place. 

To the history of our subsequent controversies 
with France, until the peace of Amiens, it will not 
be necessary for me to advert. Upon Mr. Monroe's 
return to the United States, the administration had 
passed from the hands of President Washington, into 
those of his successor. In vindication of his own 
character, Mr. Monroe felt himself obliged to go be- 
fore the tribunal of the public, and published his 
"View of the conduct of the Executive in the For- 
eign affairs of the United States, connected with the 
mission to the French Republic, during the years 
1794, '95 and '90; 

Upon the propriety of this step, as well as with re- 
gard to the execution of the work, opinions were, at 
the time, and have continued, various. The policy 
of Washington, in that portentous crisis in human af- 
fairs, is, in the main, now placed beyond the reach of 
criticism. It is sanctioned by the nearly unanimous 
voice of posterity. It will abide, in unfading lustre, 
the test of after ages. Nor will the well-earned fame 
of Mr. Monroe, for distinguished ability, or pure in- 
tegrity, suffer from the part which he acted in these 
transactions. In the fervor of pohtical contentions, 



LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 253 

personal animosities belong more to the infirmities of 
man's nature than to individual wrong, and they are 
unhappily sharpened in proportion to the sincerity 
with which conflicting opinions are avowed. It is 
the property of wise and honorable minds, to lay 
aside these resentments, and the prejudices flowing 
from them, when the conflicts, which gave rise to 
them, have passed away. Thus it was that the great 
orator, statesman, and moralist, of antiquity, when 
reproached for reconciliation with a bitter antagonist, 
declared that he wished his enemies to be transient, 
and his friendships immortal. Thus it was, that the 
congenial mind of James Monroe, at the zenith of his 
public honors, and in the retirement of his latest days, 
cast off, like the suppuration of a wound, all the feel- 
ings of unkindness, and all the severities of judgment, 
which might have intruded upon his better nature, in 
the ardor of civil dissension. In veneration for the 
character of Washington, he harmonized with the 
now unanimous voice of his country ; and he has 
left recorded, with his own hand, a warm and un- 
qualified testimonial to the pure patriotism, the pre- 
eminent ability and the spotless integrity of John 
Jay. 

That neither the recall of Mr. Monroe, from his 
mission to France, nor the publication of his volume, 
had any effect to weaken the confidence reposed in 
him by his fellow citizens, was manifested by his im- 
mediate election to the Legislature, and soon after- 
wards to the office of Governor of Virginia, in which 



254 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

he served for the term, limited by the Constitution, 
of three years. In the mean time, the Directory of 
France, with its Council of Five Hundred, and its 
Council of Elders, had been made to vanish from the 
scene, by the magic talisman of a soldier's sword. 
The Government of France, in point of form, was 
administered by a Triad of Consuls : in point of fact, 
by a successful warrior, then Consul for life : here- 
ditary Emperor and King of Italy ; with a forehead, 
burning for a diadem ; a soul inflated by victory ; 
and an imagination, fired with visions of crowns and 
sceptres, in prospect. before him. — He had extorted, 
from the prostrate imbecility of Spain, the province 
of Louisiana, and compelled her, before the delivery 
of the territory to him, to revoke the solemnly stipu- 
lated privilege, to the citizens of the United States, 
of a deposit at New Orleans. A military colony was 
to be settled in Louisiana, and the materials, for an 
early rupture with the United States, were industri- 
ously collected. The triumph of the Republican party, 
here, had been marked by the election of Thomas 
Jefferson to the Presidency : just before which, our 
previous controversies with France had been adjusted 
by a Treaty of Amity and Commerce, and shortly 
after which, a suspension of arms, between France 
and Britain, had been concluded, under the fallacious 
name of a Peace at Amiens. The restless spirit of 
Napoleon, inflamed, at the age of most active energy 
in human life, by the gain of fifty battles, dazzling 
with a splendor, then unrivalled but by the renown 



LIFE OF JAMKS MONROE. 255 

of Caesar, breathing, for a moment, in the midway- 
path of his career, the conqueror of Egypt, the victor 
of Lodi, and of Marengo, the trampler upon the neck 
of his country, her people, her legislators, and her 
constitution, was about to bring his veteran legions, in 
formidable proximity to this Union. The transfer of 
Louisiana to France, the projected military colony, 
and the occlusion, at that precise moment, of the port 
of New Orleans, operated like an electric shock, in 
this country. The pulse of the West beat, instanta- 
neously, for M^ar : and the antagonists of Mr. Jetfer- 
son, in Congress, sounded the trumpet of vindication 
to the rights of the nation ; and, as they perhaps 
flattered themselves, of downfall to his administra- 
tion. In this crisis, Mr. Jefferson, following the ex- 
ample of his first predecessor, on a similar occasion, 
instituted a special and extraordinary mission to 
France ; for which, in the name of his country, and 
of the highest of human duties, he commanded, rather 
than invited, the services and self devotion of Mr. 
Monroe. Nor did he hesitate to accept the perilous, 
and, at that time, most unpromising charge. He was 
joined, in the Commission Extraordinary, with Robert 
R. Livingston, then resident Minister Plenipotentiary, 
from the United States, in France, well known as one 
of the most eminent leaders of our Revolution. Mr. 
Monroe's appointment was made on the eleventh of 
January, 1803 ; and, as Louisiana was still in the pos- 
session of Spain, he was appointed also, jointly with 
Charles Pinckney, then Minister Plenipotentiary of 



256 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

the United States at Madrid, to an Extraordinary 
Mission to negotiate, if necessary, concerning the 
same interest there. The intended object of these 
negotiations was to acquire, by purchase, the island 
of New Orleans, and the Spanish territory, east of 
the Mississippi. Mr. Livingston had, many months 
before, presented to the French Government a very 
able memorial, showing, by conclusive arguments, 
that the cession of the Province to the United States, 
would be a measure of wise and sound policy, condu- 
cive not less to the true interests of France than to 
those of the Federal Union. At that time, however, 
the memoir was too widely variant from the wild and 
gigantic project of Napoleon. 

How often are we called, in this world of vicissi- 
tudes, to testify that 

" There's a Divinity, who shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them how we will." 

When Mr. Monroe arrived in France, all was 
changed in the Councils of the Tuileries. The vol- 
canic crater was re-blazing to the skies. The war 
between France and Britain was rekindling, and the 
article of most immediate urgency to the necessities 
of the first consul was money. The military colony 
of twenty thousand veterans already assembled at 
Helovet-Sluys to embark for Louisiana, received an- 
other destination. The continent of America w^as 
relieved from the imminent prospect of a conflict with 
the modern Alexander, and Mr. Monroe had scarcely 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 257 

reached Paris, when he and his colleague were in- 
formed that the French Government had resolved, for 
an adequate compensation in money, to cede to the 
United States the whole of Louisiana. The acquisi- 
tion, and the sum demanded for it, transcended the 
powers of the American Plenipotentiaries, and the 
amount of the funds at their disposal ; but they hesi- 
tated not to accept the offer. The negotiation was 
concluded in a fortnight. The ratification of the 
treaty, with those of a convention appropriating part 
of the funds created by it to the adjustment of certain 
claims of citizens of the United States upon France, 
were within six months exchanged at Washington, 
and the majestic valley of the Mississippi, and the 
Rocky Mountains, and the shores of the Pacific 
Ocean became integral parts of the North American 
Union. 

From France, immediately after the conclusion of 
the treaties, Mr. Monroe proceeded to England, 
where he was commissioned as the successor of Rufus 
King in the character of Minister Plenipotentiary of 
the United States. Mr. King was, at his own re- 
quest, returning to his own country, after a mission 
of seven years, in which he had enjoyed the rare ad- 
vantage of giving satisfaction alike to his own gov- 
ernment, and to that to which he was accredited. 
Mr. Monroe carried with him the same dispositions, 
and had the temper of the British government contin- 
ued to be marked with the same good humor and 
moderation which had prevailed during the mission 



258 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

of Mr. King, that of Mr. Monroe would have been 
equally successful. But with the renewal of the war 
revived the injustice of belligerent pretensions, fol- 
lowed by the violence of belligerent outrages upon 
neutrality. After the conclusion of the treaty with 
Mr. Jay, and especially towards the close of the pre- . 
ceding war, the British government had gradually 
abstained from the exercise of those outrages which 
had brought them to the verge of a war with the 
United States, and at the issue of a correspondence 
with Mr. King, had disclaimed the right of inter- 
ference with the trade between neutral ports and the 
colonies of her enemies. Just before the departure 
of Mr. King, a convention had been proposed by him 
in which Britain abandoned the pretension of right to 
impress seamen, which failed only by a captious ex- 
ception for the narrow seas, suggested by a naval of- 
ficer, then at the head of the admiralty. But after 
the war recommenced, the odious pretensions and op- 
pressive practices of unlicensed rapine returned in its 
train. In the midst of his discussions with the British 
government on these topics, Mr. Monroe was called 
away to the discharge of his extraordinary mission to 
Spain. 

In the retrocession of Louisiana, by France to 
Spain, no limits of the province had been defined. It 
was retroceded with a reference to its original boun- 
daries as possessed by France, but those boundaries 
had been a subject of altercation between France and 
Spain, from the time when Louis the 14th had made 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 259 

a grant of Louisiana to Crozat. Napoleon took this 
retrocession of tiie province, well aware of the gor- 
dian knot with which it was bound, and fully deter- 
nnined to sever it with his accustomed solvent, the 
sword. His own cession of the province to the Uni- 
ted States, however, relieved him from the necessity 
of resorting to this expedient, and proportionably 
contracted in his mind the dimensions of the prov- 
ince. — He ceded Louisiana to the United States with- 
out waiting for the delivery of possession to himself, 
and used with regard to the boundary in his grant, 
the very words of the conveyance to him by Spain. 
The Spanish Government solemnly protested against 
the cession of Louisiana to the United States, alleging 
that in the very treaty by which France had reac- 
quired the province, she had stipulated never to cede 
it away from herself. Soon admonished, however, 
of her own helpless condition, and encouraged to 
transfer her objections from the cession to the boun- 
dary, she withdrew her protest against the whole 
transaction, and took ground upon the disputed extent 
of the province. The original claim of France had 
been from the Perdido East to the Rio Bravo West 
of the Mississippi. Mobile had been originally a 
French settlement, and all West Florida, was as dis- 
tinctly within the claim of France, as the mouth of 
the Mississippi first discovered by La Salle. Such 
was the understanding of the American Plenipoten- 
tiaries, and of Congress, who accordingly authorized 
President Jefierson to establish a collection district on 



260 I-IFE OF JAMKS MONROE. 

the shores, waters and inlets of the bay and river 
Mobile, and of rivers both East and West of the same. 
But Spain on her part reduced the province of Louisi- 
ana to httle more than the Island of New Orleans. 
She assumed an attitude menacing immediate war ; 
refused to ratify a convention made under the eye of 
her own Government at Madrid, for indemnifying cit- 
izens of the United States, plundered under her au- 
thority during the preceding war ; harassed and ran- 
somed the citizens of the Union and their property on 
the waters of Mobile ; and marched military forces 
to the borders of the Sabine, where they were met 
by troops of the United States, with whom a conflict 
was spared only by a temporary military convention 
between the respective commanders. It was at this 
emergency that Mr. Monroe proceeded from London 
to Madrid to negotiate together with Mr. Pinckney, 
upon this boundary, and for the purchase of the rem- 
nant of Spain's title to the territory of Florida. He 
passed through Paris on his way, precisely at the 
time to witness the venerable Pontiff of the Roman 
Church invest the brows of Napoleon with the here- 
ditary imperial Crown of France, in the Cathedral of 
Notre Dame. While in Paris, Mr. Monroe addressed 
to the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand, 
a letter reminding him of -a promise somewhat indefi- 
nite, at the time of the cession of Louisiana, that the 
good offices of France, in aid of a negotiation with 
Spain for the acquisition of Florida should be yielded: 
stating that he was on his way to Madrid to enter 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 261 

upon that negotiation, and claiming the fulfilment of 
that promise of France. He also presented the view 
taken by the government of the United States, that 
the limits of Louisiana as ceded by France to them 
extended from the Perdido to the Rio Bravo. — This 
letter w^as promptly answered by the Minister Talley- 
rand, with an earnest argument in behalf of the 
Spanish claim of boundary Eastward of the Missis- 
sippi, but expressing no opinion with regard to her 
pretensions Westward of that river. His Imperial 
Majesty had discovered, not only that West Florida 
formed no part of the Territory of Louisiana ; but 
that he never had entertained such an idea, nor imag- 
ined that a retrocession of the province as it had been 
possessed by France, could include the District of 
Mobile. This argument was pressed with so much 
apparent candor and sincerity, that it may give inter- 
est to the anecdote which I am about to relate as a 
commentary upon it. It happened that a member of 
the Senate of the Ujiited States was at New Orleans, 
when the Commissioner of Napoleon authorized to 
receive possession of the province arrived there, and 
before the cession to the United States. This Com- 
missioner in conversation with the American Senator, 
told him that the military colony from France might 
be soon expected. That there was perpaps some dif- 
ference of opinion between the French and Spanish 
governments as to the boundary ; but that when the 
colony arrived, his orders were quietly to take pos- 
session to the Perdido and leave the diversities of 



262 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

opinion to be afterwards disscussed in the Cabinet. 
This anecdote was related on the floor of the Senate 
of the United States, by the member of that body 
who had been a party to the conversation. 

But with this forgetful change of opinion in the new 
crowned head of the Imperial Republic, there was 
little prospect of success for the mission of Mr. Mon- 
roe at Madrid ; to which place he proceeded. There 
in the space of five months, together with his col- 
league Charles Pinckncy, he unfolded the principles, 
and discussed the justice of his country's claim, in cor- 
respondence and conferences with the Prince of the 
Peace, and Don Pedro Cevallos, with great ability, 
but without immediate effect. The questions which 
Napoleon would have settled by the march of a de- 
tachment from his mihtary colony, was to abide their 
issue by the more lingering, and more deliberate 
march of time. The state papers which passed at 
that stage of the great controversy with Spain, re- 
mained many years buried in the archives of the gov- 
ernments respectively parties to it. They have since 
been published at Washington ; but so little of attrac- 
tion have diplomatic documents of antiquated date, 
even to the wakeful lovers of reading, that in this en- 
lightened auditory how many — might I not with more 
propriety inquire how few there are, by whom they 
have ever been perused 1 It is nevertheless due to the 
memory of Mr. Monroe and of his colleague to say 
that among the creditable state papers of this nation 
they will rank in the highest order : — that they de- - 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 263 

serve the close and scrutinizing attention of every 
American statesman, and will remain solid, however 
unornamented, monuments of intellectual power ap- 
plied to national claims of right, in the land of our 
fathers and the age which has now passed away. 

In June, 1805, Mr. Monroe returned to his post at 
London, where new and yet more arduous labors 
awaited him. A new ministry, at the head of which 
Mr. Pitt returned to power, had succeeded the mild 
but feeble administration of Mr. Addington, and Lord 
Mulgrave as Minister for Foreign Affairs, had taken 
the place of the Earl of Harrowby. The war be- 
tween French and British ambition was spreading over 
Europe, and Napoleon, by threats and preparations, 
and demonstrations of a purposed invasion of Great 
Britain, had aroused the spirit of that island to the 
highest pitch of exasperation. Conscious of their in- 
ability to contend with him upon the continent of Eu- 
rope, confident in their unquestionable but not then 
unquestioned supremacy over him upon the ocean, the 
British government saw with an evil eye, the advan- 
tages which the neutral nations were deriving from 
their commercial intercourse with France and her al- 
lies. Little observant of any principle but that of her 
own interest, British policy then conceived the project 
of substituting a forced commerce between her own 
subjects and their enemies, by annihilating the same 
commerce enjoyed by her enemies through the privi- 
leged medium of the neutral flag. In her purposes of 
manifesting for her own benefit the superiority of her 



264 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

power upon the seas, British policy, has, as her occa- 
sions serve, a choice of expedients. In the present 
instance, for the space of two full years, she had suf- 
fered neutral navigation to enjoy the benefit of princi- 
ples in the law of nations, formerly recognized by 
herself, in the correspondence between Mr. King and 
Lord Hawkesbury, shortly before the close of the 
preceding war. In the confidence of this recognition, 
the commerce and navigation of the United States 
had grown and flourished beyond all former example, 
and the ocean whitened with their canvas. Suddenly, 
as if by a concerted signal throughout the world of 
waters which encompass the globe, our hardy and 
peaceful, though intrepid mariners, found themselves 
arrested in their career of industry and skill ; seized 
by the British cruizers ; their vessels and cargoes con- 
ducted into British ports, and by the spontaneous and 
sympathetic illumination of British Courts of Vice 
Admiralty, adjudicated to the captors, because they 
were engaged in a trade with the enemies of Britain 
to which they had not usually been admitted in time 
of peace. Mr. Monroe had scarcely reached London 
when he received a report fi'om the Consul of the 
United States, at that place, announcing that about 
twenty of their vessels, had, within a few weeks, been 
brought into the British ports on the Channel, and 
that by the condemnation of more than one of them, 
the Admirality Court had settled the principle. 

And thus was revived the stubborn contest between 
neutral rights and belligerent pretensions, which had 



LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 265 

sown, for so many years, thickets of thorns in the path 
of the preceding administrations ; which Washington 
had with infinite difficulty avoided, and which his sue- 
cesser had scarcely been fortunate enough to avoid. 
And from that day to the peace of Ghent, the biogra- 
phy of James Monroe is the history of that struggle, 
and in a great degree the history of this nation — an 
eventful period in the annals of mankind ; a deeply 
momentous crisis in the affairs of our Union. A rapid 
sketch of the agency of Mr. Monroe in several sue- 
cessive and important stations, through the series of 
vicissitudes, is all that the occasion will permit, and 
more, I fear, than the time accorded by the indul- 
gence of my auditory will allow. The controversy 
was opened by a note of mild, but indignant remon- 
strance from Mr. Monroe to the Earl of Mulgrave, 
answered by that nobleman verbally, with excuse, 
apology, qualified avowal, equivocation, and a promise 
of written discussion, which never came. Mr. Pitt 
died ; his ministry was dissolved, and he was succeed- 
ed as the head of the administration, by -the great ri- 
val and competitor of his fame, Charles Fox. In the 
meantime the navies of France and Spain had been 
annihilated at Trafalgar, and the imperial crowns of 
Muscovy and of Austria, had cowered under the blos- 
soming sceptre of the soldier of fortune at Austerlitz. 
Mr. Fox, liberal in l;is principles, but trammelled by 
the passions, prejudices, and terrors of his country- 
men and his colleagues, disavowed the new practice 
of capturing neutrals, and the new principles in the 



266 LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 

Admirality Courts which had so simultaneously made 
their appearance : but Mr. Fox issued a paper block- 
ade of the whole coast, from the Elbe to Brest. He 
revoked the orders under which the British cruizers 
had swept the seas, and released the vessels already 
captured, upon which the sentence of the Admirality 
had not been passed, but he demurred to the claim of 
indemnity for adjudications already consummated. Of 
the excitement and agitation, raised in our country by 
this inroad upon the laws of nations and upon neutral 
commerce, an adequate idea can now scarcely be con- 
ceived. The complaints, the remonstrances, the ap- 
peals for protections to Congress, from the plundered 
merchants, rung throughout the Union. A fire spread- 
ing from Portland to New Orleans, would have scarce- 
ly been more destructive. Memorial upon memorial, 
from all the cities of the land, loaded the tables of the 
Legislative Halls, with the cry of distress and the call 
upon the national arm for defence, restitution and in- 
demnity. Mr. Jefferson instituted again a special and 
extraordinary mission to London, in which William 
Pinckney, perhaps the most eloquent of our citizens 
then living, was united with Mr. Monroe. Had Mr. 
Fox lived, their negotiation might have been ultimate- 
ly successful. While he lived, the cruizers upon the 
seas, and the Admirality Courts upon the shores, sus- 
pended their concert of depredation upon the Ameri- 
can commerce, and a treaty was concluded between 
the Ministers of our country, and Plenipotentiaries 
selected by Mr. Fox, which, with subsequent modifi- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 267 

cations, just and reasonable, suggested on our part, 
might have restored peace and harmony, so far as it 
can subsist, between emulous and rival nations. As 
transmitted to this country, how^ever, the treaty was 
deemed by Mr. Jefferson not to have sufficiently pro- 
vided against the odious impressment of our seamen, 
and it was clogged with the declaration of the British 
Plenipotentiaries, delivered after the signature of the 
treaty, suspending the obligation upon an extraneous 
and inadmissible condition. Mr. Jefferson sent back 
the treaty for revisal, but the mature and conciliatory 
spirit of Fox, was no longer to be found in the coun- 
cils of Britain. It had been succeeded by the dashing 
and flashy spirit of George Canning. He refused to 
resume the negotiation. Under the auspices, not of 
positive orders, but of the well known temper of his 
administration, Berkley committed the unparalleled 
outrage upon the Chesapeake — disavowed, but never 
punished. Then came the orders in council of No- 
vember, 1807 : the proclamation to sanction man- 
stealing from American merchantmen by royal au- 
thority ; and the mockery of an olive branch in the 
hai>ds of George Rose — our embargo ; the liberal and 
healing arrangement of David Erskine, disavowed by 
his government as soon as known — but not unpunish- 
ed ; a minister fresh from Copenhagen, sent to ad- 
minister the healing medicine for Erskine's eiTor, in 
the shape of insolence and defiance. Insult and inju- 
ry followed each other in foul succession, till the smil- 
ing visage of Peace herself flushed with resentment, 

12 



268 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

and the Representatives of the nation responded to 
the loud and indignant call of their country for war. 
When the British gocernnient refused to resume the 
negotiation of the treaty, the Extraordinary Mission 
in which Monroe and Pinckney had been joined, was 
at an end. Mr. Monroe, even before the commence- 
ment of that negotiation, had solicited and obtained 
permission to return home — a determination, the exe- 
cution of which had by that special joint mission been 
postponed. He suffered a further short detention, in 
consequence of the exploit of Admiral Berkley upon 
the Chesapeake and returned to the United States at 
the close of the year 1807. After a short interval 
passed in the retirement of private life, he was again 
elected Governor of Virginia, and upon the resigna- 
tion of Robert Smith, was, in the spring of 1811, ap- 
pointed by President Madison, Secretary of State. 
This office he continued to hold during the remainder 
of the double Presidential term of Mr. Madison, with 
the exception of about six months at the close of the 
late war with Great Britain, when he discharged the 
then still more arduous duties of the War Department. 
On the return of peace he was restored to the Depart- 
ment of State ; and on the retirement of Mr. Madi- 
son in 1817, he was elected President of the United 
States — re-elected without opposition in 1821. On 
the third of March, 1825, he retired to his residence 
in Loudon county, Virginia. Subsequent to that pe- 
riod, he discharged the ordinary judicial functions of 
a magistrate of the county, and of curator of the 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 269 

University of Virginia. In the winter of 1829 and 
1830, he served as a member of the Convention called 
to revise the Constitution of that Commonwealth ; 
and took an active part in their deliberations, over 
which he was unanimously chosen to preside. From 
this station, he was, however, compelled, before the 
close of the labors of the Convention, by severe ill- 
ness, to retire. The succeeding summer, he was, in 
the short compass of a week, visited by the bereave- 
ment of the beloved partner of his life, and of another 
near, affectionate and respected relative. Soon after 
these deep and trying afflictions, he removed his resi- 
dence to the city of New York ; where, surrounded 
by filial solicitude and tenderness, the flickering lamp 
of life held its lingering flame, as if to await the day 
of the nation's birth and glory ; when the soldier of 
the Revolution, the statesman of the Confederacy, the 
chosen chieftain of the constituted nation, sunk into 
the arms of slumber, to awake no more upon earth, 
and yielded his pure and gallant spirit to receive the 
sentence of his Maker. 

Of the twenty years, which intervened between 
his first appointment, as Secretary of State, and his 
decease, to give even a summary, would be to encroach 
beyond endurance upon your time. He came to the 
Department of State at a time when war, between 
the United States and Great Britain, was impending 
and unavoidable. It was a crisis in the affairs of this 
Union full of difficulty and danger. The Constitution 
had never before been subjected to the trial of a for- 



270 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

midable foreign war ; and one of the greatest misfor- 
tunes, which attended it, was the want of unanimity 
in the country for its support. This is not the occa- 
sion to revive the dissensions which then agitated the 
pubUc mind. It may suffice to say that, until the war 
broke out, and during its continuance, the duties of 
the offices held by Mr. Monroe, at the head, succes- 
sively, of the Departments of State and War, were 
performed with untiring assiduity, with universally ac- 
knowledged abihty, and, with a zeal of patriotism, 
which counted health, fortune, and. life itself, for noth- 
ing, in the ardor of self devotion to the cause of his 
country. It is a tribute of justice to his memory to 
say, that he was invariably the adviser of energetic 
counsels ; nor is the conjecture hazardous, that, had 
his appointment to the Department of war, preceded, 
by six months, its actual date, the heaviest disaster of 
the war, heaviest, because its remembrance must be 
coupled with the blush of shame, would have been 
spared as a blotted page in the annals of our Union. 
It should have been remembered, that, in war, heed- 
less security, on one side, stimulates desperate expe- 
dients on the other ; and that the enterprise, surely fa- 
tal to the undertaker, when encountered by precau- 
tion, becomes successful achievment over the help- 
lessness of neglected preparation. Such had been the 
uniform lesson of experience in former ages : such 
had it, emphatically, been in our own Revolutionary 
War. Strange, indeed, would it appear, had it been 
forgotten by one who had so gloriously and so dearly 



LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 271 

purchased it at Trenton. By him it was not forgot- 
ten : nor had it escaped the calm and dehberate fore- 
sight of the venerable patriot, who then presided in 
the executive chair ; and, at this casual and unpre- 
meditated remembrance of him, bear with me, my 
fellow citizens, if, pausing for a moment from the con- 
templation of the kindred virtues of his successor, co- 
patriot, and friend, I indulge the effusion of gratitude, 
and of pubhc veneration, to share in your gladness, 
that he yet lives — lives to impart to you, and to your 
children, the priceless jewel of his instruction : lives 
in the hour of darkness, and of danger, gathering 
over you, as if from the portals of eternity, to enlight- 
en, and to guide. 

Among the severest trials of the war, was the defi- 
ciency of adequate funds to sustain it, and the progres- 
sive degradation of the national credit. By an unpro- 
pitious combination of rival interests, and of pohtical 
prejudices, the first Bank of the United States, at the 
very outset of the war, had been denied the renewal 
of its charter : a heavier blow of illusive and contrac- 
ted policy, could scarcely have befallen the Union. 
The polar star of public credit, and of commercial 
confidence, was abstracted from the firmament, and 
the needle of the compass wandered at random to the 
four quarters of the heavens. From the root of the 
fallen trunk, sprang up a thicket of perishable suckers 
— never destined to bear fruit : the offspring of sum- 
mer vegetation, withering at the touch of the first 
winter's frost. Yet, upon them was our country 



272 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

doomed to rely : it was her only substitute for the 
shade and shelter of the parent tree. The currency 
soon fell into frightful disorder : Banks, with fictitious 
capital, swarmed throughout the land, and spunged 
the purse of the people, often for the use of their own 
money, with more than usurious extortion. The solid 
Banks, even of this metropolis, were enabled to 
maintain their integrity, only by contracting their ope- 
rations to an extent ruinous to their debtors, and to 
themselves. A balance of trade, operating like uni- 
versal fraud, vitiated the channels of intercourse be- 
tween North and South : and the Treasury of the 
Union was replenished only with countless millions 
of silken tatters, and unavailable funds : chartered 
corporations, bankrupt, under the gentle name of sus- 
pended specie payments, and without a dollar of capi- 
tal to pay their debts, sold, at enormous discounts, the 
very evidence of those debts ; and passed off, upon 
the Government of their country, at par, their rags — 
purchasable, in open market, at depreciations of thirty 
and forty per cent. In the meantime, so degraded 
was the credit of the nation, and so empty their 
Treasury, that Mr. Monroe, to raise the funds indis- 
pensable for the defence of New Orleans, could ob- 
tain them only by pledging his private individual 
credit, as subsidiary to that of the nation. This he 
did without an instant of hesitation, nor was he less 
ready to sacrifice the prospects of laudable ambition, 
than the objects of personal interest, to the suffering 
cause of his country. 



LIFE OP JAMES MONROE. 273 

Mr. Monroe was appointed to the Department of 
War, towards the close of the campaign of 1814. 
Among the first of his duties, was that of preparing 
a general plan of military operations for the succeed- 
ing year : a task rendered doubly arduous by the pe- 
culiar circumstances of the time. When the war, 
between the United States and Britain, had first kin- 
dled into f^ame, Britain, herself, was in the convulsive 
pangs of a struggle, which had often threatened her 
existence as an independent nation — in the twentieth 
year of a war, waged with agonizing exertions, which 
had strained, to the vital point of endurance, all the 
sinews of her power, and absorbed the resources, not 
only of her people then on the theatre of life, but of 
their posterity, for long after-ages. In the short in- 
terval of two years, from the commencement of her 
war with America, in a series of those vicissitudes by 
which a mysterioas Providence rescues its impenetra- 
ble decrees from the presumptuous foresight of man, 
Britain had transformed the mightiest monarchies of 
Europe, from inveterate enemies into devoted allies ; 
and, in the metropolis of her most dreaded, and most 
detested foe, was dictating to him terms of humilia- 
tion, and lessons of political morality. The war had 
terminated in her complete and unqualified triumph ; 
her numerous victorious veteran legions, flushed with 
the glory, and stung with the ambition of long-con- 
tested, and hard-earned, success, were turned back 
upon her hands, without occupation for their enter- 
prise, eager for new fields of battle, and new rewards 



274 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

of achievement. Ten thousand of these selected 
wamors had already been detached from her multi- 
tudes in arms, commanded by a favorite lieutenant, 
and relative of Wellington, to share in the beauty and 
booty of New Orleans, and to acquire, for a time 
which her after-consideration and interest were to 
determine, the mastery of the Mississippi, his waters, 
and his shores. The fate of this gallant host, sealed 
in the decrees of heaven, had not then been consum- 
mated upon earth. They had not matched their for- 
ces with the planters and ploughmen of the western 
wilds — nor learnt the difference between a struggle 
with the servile and mercenary squadrons of a mili- 
tary conqueror, and a conflict with the freeborn de- 
fenders of their firesides, their children, and their 
wives. Besides that number of ten thousand, she had 
myriads more at her disposal — burdens at once upon 
her gratitude and her revenues, and to whom she 
could furnish employment and support, only by 
transporting them to gather new laurels, and rise to 
more exalted renown upon the ruins of our Union. 

Such was the state of affairs, and such the pros- 
pects of the coming year, when immediately after the 
successful enterprise of the enemy upon the metrop- 
olis, Congress was convened upon the smoking ruins 
of the Capitol, and Mr. Monroe was called, without 
retiring from the duties of the Department of State, 
to assume in addition to them, those of presiding 
over the Department of War. Such was the emer- 
gency for which it became his duty to prepare and 



LIPE OF JAMES MONROE. 275 

mature plans of military operations. It is obvious that 
they must be far beyond the range of the ordinary 
means and resources on which the government of the 
Union had been accustomed to rely. They were such 
as to call forth not only the voluntary but the unwil- 
ling and reluctant hand of the citizen to defend his 
country. They summoned the Legislative voice of 
the Union to command the service of her sons. The 
army, already authorized by Acts of Congress had 
risen in numbers to upwards of sixtj'- thousand men : 
Mr. Monroe proposed to increase it to one hundred 
thousand, besides auxiliary military force ; and, in ad- 
dition to all the usual allurements to enlistment, to 
levy all deficiencies of effective numbers, by drafts 
upon the whole body of the people. This resort, 
though familiar to the usages of our own revolution- 
ary war, was now in the clamors of political opposi- 
tion, assimilated to the conscriptions of revolutionary 
France, and of Napoleon. It was obnoxious not only 
to the censure of all those who disapproved the war, 
but to the indolent, the lukewarm and the weak. It 
sent the recruting officer to ruffle the repose of do- 
mestic retirement. It authorized him ahke to unfold 
the gates to the magnificent mansion of the wealthy, 
and to lift the latch of the cottage upon the moun- 
tains. It sounded the trumpet in the nursery. It 
rang " to arms " in the bed-chamber. Mr. Monroe 
was perfectly aware that the recommendation to 
Congress of such a plan, must at least for a time 

deeply affect the personal popularity of the proposer. 

12* 



276 lifp: of james monroe. 

He believed it to be necessary, and indispensable to 
the triumph of the cause. The time for the people 
to prepare their minds for fixing the succession to the 
presidential chair was approaching. Mr. Monroe 
was already prominent among the names upon which 
the public sentiment was now concentrating itself as 
a suitable candidate for the trust. It was foreseen 
by him, that the purpose of defeating the plan, would 
connect itself with the prospects of the ensuing presi- 
dential election, and that the friends of rival candi- 
dates, otherwise devoted to the most energetic prose- 
cution of the war, might take a direction adverse to 
the adoption of the plan, not from the intrinsic objec- 
tions against it, but from the popular disfavor which 
it might shed upon its author. After consultation 
with some of his confidential friends, he resolved in 
the event of the continuance of the war, to withdraw 
his name at once from the complicated conflicts of 
the canvass, by publicly declining to stand a candi- 
date for election to the presidency. He had already 
authorized one or more persons distinguished in the 
councils of the Union, to announce this as his inten- 
tion, which would have been carried into execution, 
but that the motives by which it was dictated, were 
suspended by the conclusion of the peace. 

That event was the era of a new system of policy, 
and new divisions of parties in our federal Union. It 
relieved us from many of the most inflamat<iry symp- 
toms of our political disease. It disengaged us from 
all sympathies with foreigners predominating over 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 277 

those due to our own country. We have now, neither 
in the hearts of personal rivals, nor upon the lips 
of political adversaries, the reproach of devotion to a 
French or a British faction. If we rejoice in the tri- 
umph of European arms, it is in the victories of the 
cross over the crescent. If we gladden with the na- 
tive countrymen of Lafayette or sadden with those 
of Pulaski and Kosciusko, it is the gratulation of free- 
dom rescued from oppression, and the mourning of 
kindred spirits over the martyrs to their country's in- 
dependence. We have no sympathies but with the 
joys and sorrows of patriotism ; no attachments but 
to the cause of liberty and of man. 

The first great object of national policy, upon the 
return of peace, was the redemption of the Union 
from fiscal ruin. This was in substance accomplished 
during the remnant of Madison's administration, prin- 
cipally by the re-establishment of a National Bank, 
with enlarged capacities and capital : enacted by 
Congress under the recommendation of the Execu- 
tive, not through the Department, but with the con- 
currence of Mr. Monroe. He upon the cessation of 
the war, had retired from the easy though laborious 
duties of its department, and devoted all his faculties 
to the political intercourse of the nation with all 
others. There was a remnant of war with the pirates 
of Algiers, to which the gallant and lamented Decatur 
carried peace and freedom from tribute forever, at 
the mouth of the cannon of a single frigate. There 
were grave and momentous negotiations of commerce, 



278 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

of fisheries, of boundary, of trade with either India, 
of extinction to the slave trade, of South American 
freedom, of indemnity for enticed and depredated 
slaves, with Great Britain ; others on various topics 
scarcely less momentous with France, with Spain, 
with Sweden ; and with almost every nation of Eu- 
rope there wei'e claims unadjusted for outrages, and 
property plundered ujwn the seas, or, with more 
shameless destitution of any just or lawful pretext, in 
their own ports. There was a system of policy to be 
pursued with regard to the embryo states of Southern 
America, combining the fulfilment of the duties of 
neutrality, with the rightful furtherance of their 
emancipation. 

Turning from the foreign to the domestic interests 
of the united republic, thei^e were objects rising to 
contemplation not less in grandeur of design ; not less 
arduous in preparation for the effective agency of the 
national councils. 

The most painful, perhaps the most profitable les- 
son of the war was the primary duty of the nation to 
place itself in a state of permanent preparation for 
self-defence. This had been the doctrine and the 
creed of Washington, from the first organization of 
the government. It had been encountered by oppo- 
sition so determined and persevering, sustained by 
prejudices so akin to reason and by sensibilities so 
natural to freemen, that all the influence of that great 
and good man, aided by the foresight, and argument 
and earnest solicitude of his friends to carry it into 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 279 

effect, had proved abortive. An extensive and ex- 
pensive system of fortification upon our shores ; an 
imposing and well constituted naval establishment 
upon the seas, had been urged in all the ardor and 
sincerity of conviction by the federalists of the Wash- 
ington school, not only without producing upon the 
majority of the nation the same conviction, but with 
the mortification of having their honest zeal for the 
public welfare turned as an engine of personal war- 
fare upon themselves. By the result of this course 
of popular feelings, it happened that when the war in 
all its terrors and all its dangers came, it was to be 
managed and supported by those who to the last mo- 
ment preceding it, had resisted, if not all, at least all 
burdensome and effective preparation for meeting it. 
A solemn and awful responsibility was it, that they 
incurred ; and with brave and gallant bearing did 
they pass through the ordeal which they had defied. 
Well was it for them that a superintending Providence 
shaped the ends, rough-hewn by them ; but it produc- 
ed conviction upon their minds ; and it overcame the 
repugnances of the people. A combined system of 
efficient fortification arming the shores and encircling 
the soil of the repubhc, and the gradual establishment 
of a powerful navy, were from the restoration of the 
peace unto his latest hour, among the paramount and 
favorite principles in the political system of Mr. Mon- 
roe for the government of the Union. In these ob- 
jects, he had the good fortune to be supported as well 
by the opinions of his immediate predecessor, as by 



280 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

the predominent sentiments of the people. The sys- 
tem in both its branches was commenced in the ad- 
ministration and with the full concurrence of Mr. 
Madison. It has continued without vital modification 
to this day. May it live and flourish through all the 
political conflicts, to which you may be destined here- 
after, and survive your children's children, till augury 
becomes presumption. 

There was yet another object of great and national 
interest, brought conspicuously into view by the war, 
which pressed its unwieldy weight upon the Councils 
of the Union, from the conclusion of the peace. It 
was the adaptation of the just and impartial action of 
the federal government to the various interests of 
which the Union is composed, with regard to revenue, 
to the payment of the public debt, to the industrious 
pursuits of the farmer and planter, of the pioneers of 
the wilderness, of the merchant and navigator, of the 
manufacturer and mechanic, and of the intellectual 
laborer of the mind, including all the learned profes- 
sions and teachers of literature, religion and morals. 
To all this, a system of legitimate and equal govern- 
mental action was to be adapted ; and vast and com- 
prehensive as the bare statement of it will present 
itself to your minds, it was rendered still more com- 
plicated by the necessity of accommodating it to the 
adverse operation upon the same interests of foreign 
and rival legislation through the mediam of commer- 
cial intercourse with our country. At the very mo- 
ment of the peace the occasion was seized of tender- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 281 

ing to all the commercial nations of Europe a system 
of intercourse founded upon entire reciprocity, and a 
liberal and perfect equalization of impost and tonnage 
duties. This offer was very partially accepted, but 
has gradually extended itself to several of the Euro- 
pean nations, and to all those of Southern America. 
It is yet incomplete, and its destiny hereafter is uncer- 
tain. It must perhaps ever so remain, as it must for- 
ever depend upon the enduring and concurrent will 
of other independent nations. The fair, the free, the 
fraternal system is that of entire reciprocity ; and as 
the principles flowing from these impulses speed their 
progress in the civilization of man, there are grounds 
for hope that they may in process of time, universally 
prevail. 

But there were other interests of high import call- 
ing for the legislative action to support them. The 
war had cut off' the supply to a great extent of many 
articles of foreign manufacture, of universal con- 
sumption, and necessary for the enjoyment of the 
comforts of life. This had necessarily introduced 
large manufacturing establishments, to which the ap- 
phcation of heavy masses of capital had been made. 
The competition of foreign manufactures of the same 
articles, aided by bounties and other encouragements 
from their own governments, would have crushed in 
their infancy all such establishments here, had they 
not been supported by some benefaction from the au- 
thority of the Union. The adventurer in the West- 
ern territories needed the assistance of the national 



282 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

arm to his exertions for coverting the wilderness into 
a garden. Secure from the assaults of foreign hos- 
tility, the whole people had leisure to turn their atten- 
tion to the improvement of their own condition. And 
hence the protection of domestic industry and the im- 
provement of the internal communications between 
the portions of the Union remote from each other, 
formed an associated system of policy, embraced by 
many of our most distinguished citizens, and pursued 
with sincere and ardent patriotism. This system, 
however, was destined to encounter two obstacles of 
the gravest and most formidable character. The first, 
a question how far the people of the Union had dele- 
gated to their general government the power of pro- 
viding for their welfare, of promoting their happiness, 
of improving their condition t The second, whether 
domestic industry and internal improvement, limited 
by localities less extensive than the whole Union, can 
be protected and promoted without sacrifice of the 
interests of one portion of the Union for the benefit 
of another. The divisions of opinion and the collis- 
ions of sentiment upon these points have been fester- 
ing since the first advances of the system, till they 
have formed an imposthume in the body politic threat- 
ening its total dissolution. Mr. Monroe's opinion was, 
that the power of establishing a general system of 
internal improvement, had not been delegated to Con 
gress ; but that the power of levying and appropria 
ting money for purposes of national importance, mili 
tary or commercial, or for transportation of the mail 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 283 

was among their delegated trusts. These subjects 
have been discussed under various forms in the de- 
liberations of Congress from that period to the pres- 
ent day, and they are yet far from being exhausted. 
An appropriation of ten millions of dollars annually 
to the discharge of the principal and interest of the 
public debt, was one of the earliest measures of Mr. 
Madison's administration after the peace, and that 
purpose steadily pursued has reduced that national 
burden to so small an amount, that the total extinc- 
tion of the debt, can scarcely be protracted beyond a 
term of two or three years from this time. 

On the retirement of Mr. Madison from the office 
of Chief Magistrate, in 1817, Mr. Monroe was elected 
by a considerable majority of the suffrages in the 
electoral colleges, as his successor. This election took 
place at a period of tranquility m the public mind, of 
which there had been no previous example since the 
second election of Washington. To this tranquility, 
many concurring causes, such as are never likely to 
meet again, contributed, and among them, of no infe- 
rior order, was the existing state of the foreign, and 
especially the European world. It continued through 
the four years of his first Presidential term, at the 
close of which he was re-elected without a show of 
opposition, and by the voice a little less than unani- 
mous of the whole people. These halcyon days were 
not destined to endure- The seeds of new political 
Jjarties were latent in the withering cores of the old. 
New personal rivalries were shooting up from the 



284 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

roots of those which had been levelled with the earth. 
New ambitions were kindling from beneath the em- 
bers that had ceased to smoke. No new system of 
policy had marked the administration of Mr. Monroe. 
The acquisition of the Floridas had completed that 
series of negotiations (perhaps it were no exaggera- 
tion to say, of Revolutions) which had commenced 
under the confederation with the Encargardo de J^e- 
gocios of Spain. Viewed as a whole, throughout its 
extent, can there be a doubt in considering it as the 
most magnificent supplement to our national Indepen- 
dence presented by our history, and will there arise 
an historian of this Republican empire, who shall fail 
to perceive or hesitate to acknowledge, that through- 
out the long series of these transactions, which more 
than doubled the territories of the North American 
Confederation, the leading mind of that great move- 
ment in the annals of the world, and thus far in the 
march of human improvement upon earth, was the 
mind of James Monroe] 

In his Inaugural Address, delivered according to a 
prevailing usage, upon his induction to office, he took 
a general view of the existing condition and general 
interests of the nation, and marked out for himself a 
path of policy, which he faithfully pursued. The first 
of the objects to which he declared that his purposes 
would be directed, was the preparation of the coun- 
try for future defensive war. Fortification of the 
coast and inland frontiers — peace establishments of the 
army and navy, with an improved system of regula- 



\ 



I 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 285 

tion and discipline for the militia, were the means by 
which this was to be effected, and to which his inde- 
fatigable labors were devoted. The internal improve- 
ment of the country, by roads and canals ; the pro- 
tection and encouragement of domestic manufactures; 
the cultivation of peace and friendship with the Indian 
tribes — tendering to them, always, the hand of cordi- 
ality, and alluring them by good faith, kindness, and 
beneficent instruction to share and to covet the bles- 
sings of civilization ; a prudent, judicious, and eco- 
nomical, administration of the Treasury ; with the 
profitable and, at the same time liberal, management 
of the public lands, then first beginning to disclose 
their active and appreciating value, as national prop- 
erty : all these were announced as the interests of 
the great community, which he surveyed as commit- 
ted to his charge, and to the faithful custody and ad- 
vancement of which, his unremitted exertions should 
be directed : and never was pledge with more entire 
self-devotion redeemed. 

At the first Session of Congress, after his election 
to the Presidency, Mr. Monroe deemed it his duty, in 
his annual message to that body, to declare in them 
his opinion, that the power to establish a system of 
Internal Improvement by the construction of roads 
and canals, was not possessed by Congress. But, be- 
ing also of opinion, that no country of such vast ex- 
tent ever offered equal inducements to improvements 
of this kind, and that, never were consequences, of 
such magnitude, involved in them, he earnestly re- 



286 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

commended to Congress, to urge upon the States the 
adoption of an amendment which should confer the 
right upon them : and with it, the right of instituting 
seminaries of learning, for the all-important pur- 
pose of diffusing knowledge among our fellow citizens 
throughout the United States. Of the adoption of 
such an amendment, if proposed at that time, he 
scarcely entertained a doubt ; but a majority of both 
- Houses of the National Legislature were firmly of 
opinion that this power had already been granted ; 
nor has the majority of any Congress, since that time, 
been enabled to conciliate the conclusions that a pow- 
er, competent to the annexation of Louisiana to this 
Union, was incompetent to the construction of a post- 
road, to the opening of a canal, or to the diffusion of 
the light of Heaven upon the mind of after ages, by 
the institution of seminaries of learning. 

Notwithstanding the manifestation of these opin- 
ions of Mr. Monroe, a subsequent Congress did pass 
an act for the maintenance and reparation of the 
Cumberland Road, and for the erecting of toll-gates 
upon it. Firm and consistent in the constitutional 
views which he had taken, he deemed it his duty to ap- 
ply to this act his Presidential arresting power ; and, 
in returning the Bill to the House where it originated 
justified his exercise of prerogative in an able and 
elaborate exposition of the reasons of his opinions. 
This work, probably, contains whatever of argument 
the intellectual power of man can eviscerate from rea- 
son, against the exercise, by Congress, of the contest- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 287 

ed power. It arrested, to a considerable extent, the 
progress of Internal Improvement ; and succeeded by 
similar scruples in the mind of one of his successors, 
has held them in abeyance to this day. 

The opinions of James Monroe upon doubtful or 
controverted points of Constitutional Law, can never 
cease to be deserving of profound respect. They 
were never lightly entertained. They were always 
deliberate, always disinterested, always sincere. At 
a subsequent period of his administration, as it drew 
towards its close, a modification suggested itself to 
his mind, warranting a compromise between the doc- 
trines of those who invoked the beneficent action of 
Congress for national improvement, and of those who 
denied to the Supreme Councils of the nation the right 
of conferring blessings upon the people. In his an- 
nual Message to Congress, on the 2d of December, 
1823, he announced his belief that Congress did pos- 
sess the power of appropriating ynoney for the con- 
struction of a Canal to connect together the waters 
of the Chesapeake and the Ohio (the jurisdiction re- 
maining to the States through which the Canal would 
pass.) This of course included the concession of the 
same right of appropriating money for all other like ob- 
jects of national interest, and it was accompanied with 
a recommendation to Congress to consider the expedi- 
ency of authorizing by an adequate appropriation the 
employment of a suitable number of the Officers of 
the Corps of Engineers, to examine the unexplored 
ground during the ensuing season, and to report their 



288 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

opinion thereon ; extending also their examination to 
the several routes through which the waters of the 
Ohio might be connected, by Canals, with those of 
Lake Erie. Under this recommendation, an Act of 
Congress was passed, and on the 30th of April, 1824, 
received the signature of Mr. Monroe, appropriating 
the sum of thirty thousand dollars ; authorizing and 
enabUng the President of the United States, to cause 
the necessary surveys, plans and estimates to be made 
of the routes of such Roads and Canals as he might 
deem of national importance, in a commercial or mil- 
itary point of view, or necessary for the transporta- 
tion of the public mail ; designating in the case of 
each Canal, what parts might be made capable of 
sloop navigation. The results of the surveys to be 
laid before Congress. And the President was author- 
ized to employ Civil Engineers, with such officers of 
the several military corps in the public service as he 
might detail for that service, to accomplish the pur- 
poses of the Act. 

"Sink down, ye mountains ! and ye vallies — rise ! " 

Rise ! Rise, before your forefathers, here assembled, 
ye unborn ages of after-time ! Rise ! and bid the 
feeble and perishing voice, which now addresses 
them, proclaim your gratitude to your and their Cre- 
ator, for having disposed the hearts of that portion of 
their Representatives, who then composed their Su- 
preme National Council, to the passage of that Act. 
Exult and shout for joy ! Rejoice ! that, if for you, 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 289 

there are neither Rocky Mountains, nor Oasis of the 
Desert, from the rivers of the Southern Ocean to the 
shores of the Atlantic Sea : Rejoice ! that, if for you, 
the waters of the Columbia mingle in union with the 
streams of the Delaware, the Lakes of the St. Law- 
rence, and the floods of the Mississippi : Rejoice ! 
that, if for you, every valley has been exalted, and 
every mountain and hill has been made low, the 
crooked straight, and the rough places plain : Rejoice! 
that, if for you, Time has been divested of his delays, 
and Space disburthened of his obstructions : Rejoice ! 
that, if for you, the distant have been drawn near, 
and the repulsive allured to mutual attraction : that, 
if for you, the North American Continent swarms 
with unnumbered multitudes ; of hearts beating as if 
from one bosom ; of voice, speaking but with one 
tongue ; of freemen, constituting one confederated 
and united Republic ; of brethren, never to rise, na- 
tion against nation, in hostile arms ; of brethren, to 
fulfil the blessed prophecy of ancient times, that war 
shall be no more : to the power of applying the super- 
flous revenues of these, your forefathers, by their re- 
presentatives in the Congress of this Union, to the 
improvement of your condition, you are, under God, 
indebted for the enjoyment of all these unspeakable 
blessings. 

The system 6f Internal Improvement, then, though 
severely checked, by the opinion that the people of 
this Union have practically denied to themselves the 
power of bettering their own condition, by restrain- 



I 
290 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

ing their government from the exercise of the facul- 
ties, by which alone it can be made effective, was 
commenced under the administration of James Mon- 
roe : commenced with his sanction : commenced at 
his earnest recommendation. And if, in after ages, 
every leaf in the chaplet of his renown, shall be ex- 
amined by the scrutinizing eye of grateful memory, 
to find, in the perennial green of all, one of more un- 
fading verdure than the rest, that leaf shall unfold 
itself from the stem of Internal Improvement. 

It is not within the scope of this discourse, to re- 
view the numerous and important Acts of Mr. Mon- 
roe's administration. In the multitude of a great na- 
tion's public aftairs, there is no official act of their 
Chief Magistrate, however momentous, or however 
minute, but should be traceable to a dictate of duty, 
pointing to the welfare of the people. Such was the 
cardinal principle of Mr. Monroe. In his first ad- 
dress, upon his election to the Presidency, he had 
exposed the general principles by which his conduct, 
in the discharge of his great trust, would be regula- 
ted. In his second Inaugural Address, he succinctly 
reviewed that portion of the career through which 
he had passed, fortunately sanctioned by public ap- 
probation ; and promised perseverance in it, to the 
close of his public service. And, in his last annual 
Message to Congress, on the seventh of December, 
1824, announcing his retirement from public life, after 
the close of that session of the Legislature, he re- 
viewed the whole course of his administration, com- 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 291 

paring it with the pledges which he had given at 
its commencement, and its middle term, appealing to 
the judgment and consciousness of those whom he ad- 
dressed, for its unity of principle as one consistent 
who^c, not exempt indeed, from the errors and infirmi- 
ties incident to all human action, but characteristic of 
purposes always honest and sincere, of intentions al- 
ways pure, of labors outlasting the daily circuit of 
the sun, and outwatching the vigils of the night — and 
what he said not, but a faithful witness is bound to re- 
cord ; of a mind anxious and unwearied in the pursuit 
of truth and right : patient of inquiry ; patient of 
contradiction ; courteous, even in the collision of sen- 
timent ; sound in its ultimate judgments ; and firm in 
its final conclusions. 

Such my fellow citizens was James Monroe. Such 
was the man who presents the only example of one 
whose public life commenced with the War of Inde- 
pendence, and is identified with all the important 
events of your history from that day forth for a full 
half century. And . now, what is the purpose for 
which we have here assembled to do honor to his 
memory ] Is it to scatter perishable flowers upon the 
yet unsodded grave of a public benefactor 1 Is it to 
mingle tears of sympathy and of consolation, with 
those of mourning and bereaved children 1 Is it to 
do honor to ourselves, by manifestiag a becoming sen- 
sibility, at the departure of one, who by a long career 
of honor and of usefulness has been to us all as a 

friend and brother \ Or is it not rather to mark the 

13 



292 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

memorable incidents of a life signalized by all the 
properties which embody the precepts of virtue and 
the principles of wisdom 1 Is it not to pause for a 
moment from the passions of our own bosoms, and 
the agitation of our own interests, to survey in its 
whole extent the long and little-beaten path of the 
great and good : to fix with intense inspection our 
own vision, and to point the ardent but unsettled gaze 
of our children upon that resplendent row of cresset 
lamps, fed with the purest vital air, which illuminate 
the path of the hero, the statesman and the sage. 
Have you a son of ardent feelings and ingenuous 
mind, docile to instruction, and panting for honorable 
distinction 1 point him to the pallid cheek and agoni- 
zing form of James Monroe, at the opening blossom 
of hfe, weltering in his blood on the field of Trenton, 
for the cause of his country. Then turn his eye to 
the same form, seven years later, in health and vigor, 
still in the bloom of youth, but seated among the Con- 
script Fathers of the land to receive entwined with 
all its laurels the sheathed and triumphant sword of 
Washington. Guide his eye along to the same object 
investigating by the midnight lamp the laws of nature 
and nations, and unfolding them, at once with all the 
convictions of reason and all the persuasions of elo- 
quence, to demonstrate the rights of his countrymen 
to the contested Navigation of the Mississippi, in the 
Hall of Congress. Follow him with this trace in his 
hand, through a long series of years, by laborious 
travels and intricate Negotiations, at Imperial Courts, 



LIFE OF JA3IES MONROE. 293 

and in the Palaces of Kings, Mending his way amidst 
the ferocious and party colored Revolutions of France 
and the life-guard favorites and Camarillas of Spain. 
Then look at the map of United North America, as it 
was at the die finite peace of 1783. Compare it with 
the map of that same Empire as it is now ; limited 
by the Sabine and the Pacific Ocean, and say, the 
change, more than of any other man, living or dead, 
was the work of James Monroe. See him pass suc- 
cessively from the Hall of the Confederation Congress 
to the Legislative Assembly of his native Common- 
wealth ; to their Convention which ratified the Con- 
stitution of the North American people ; to the Sen- 
ate of the Union ; to the Chair of Dij)lomatic Inter- 
course with ultra Revolutionary France ; back to the 
Executive honors of his native State : again to Em- 
bassies of transcendant magnitude, to France, to 
Spain, to Britain ; restored once more to retirement 
and his country ; elevated again to the highest trust 
of his State ; transferred successively to the two pre- 
eminent Departments of Peace and War, in the Na- 
tional Government ; and at the most momentous cri- 
sis burthened with the duties of both — and finally 
raised, first by the suflTrages of a majority, and at last 
by the unanimous call of his countrymen to the Chief 
Magistracy of the Union. There behold him for a 
term of eight years, strengthening his country for de- 
fence by a system of combined fortifications, military 
and naval, sustaining her rights, her dignity and hon- 
or abroad ; soothing her dissensions, and conciliating 



294 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

her acerbities at home ; controlling by a firm though 
peaceful policy the hostile spirit of the European Al- 
liance against Republican Southern America ; extort- 
ing by the mild compulsion of reason, the shores of 
the Pacific from the stipulated acknowledgment of 
Spain ; and leading back the imperial autocrat of the 
North, to his lawful boundaries, from his hastily asser- 
ted dominion over the Southern Ocean. Thus strength- 
ening and consolidating the federative edifice of his 
country's Union, till he was entitled to say, like Au- 
gustus Caesar of his imperial city, that he had found 
her built of brick and left her constructed of marble. 
In concluding this discourse, permit me, fellow-citi- 
zens, to revert to the sentiment with which it com- 
menced ; and if it be true that a superintending Provi- 
dence adapts the talents and energies of men to the 
trials by which they are to be tested, it is fitting for 
us to be admonished that the trial may also be adapt- 
ed to the talents destined to meet it. Our country 
by the bountiful dispensations of gracious Heaven, is, 
and for a series of years has been blessed with pro- 
found peace ; but when the first father of our race 
had exhibited before him by the Archangel sent to an- 
nounce his doom and to console him in his fall, the 
fortunes, and the misfortunes of his descendants, he 
saw that the deepest of their miseries would befal 
them, while favored with all the blessings of peace, 
and in the bitterness of his anguish he exclaimed 

" Now I see 
Peace to corrupt, no less than war to waste." 



LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 295 

It is the very fervor of the noon-day sun, in the 
cloudless atmosphere of a summer sky, which breeds 

" the sweeping whirlwind's sway. 
That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey." 

You have insured the gallant ship, which ploughs 
the waves, freighted with your ■\\nves and your chil- 
dren's fortunes, from the fury of the tempest above, 
and from the treachery of the wave beneath. Be- 
ware of the danger against which you can alone in- 
sure yourselves — the latent defect of the gallant ship 
herself Pass but a few short days, and forty years 
will have elapsed since the voice of him, who addres- 
ses you, speaking to your fathers, from this hallowed 
spot, gave for you, in the face of Heaven, the solemn 
pledge, that if, in the course of your career upon 
earth, emergencies should arise, calling for the exer- 
cise of those energies and virtues which, in times of 
tranquility and peace, remain, by the will of Heaven 
dormant in the human bosom, you would prove your- 
selves not unworthy of the sires who had toiled and 
fought and bled, for the independence of their coun- 
try. Nor has that pledge been unredeemed. You 
have maintained, through times of trial and danger, 
the inheritance of freedom, of union, of independence, 
bequeathed you by your forefathers. It remains for 
you only to transmit the same peerless legacy, unim- 
paired, to your children of the next succeeding age. 
To this end, let us join in humble supplication to the 
Founder of empires and the Creator of all worlds, 



296 LIFE OF JAMES MONROE. 

that he would continue to your posterity, the smiles 
which his favor has been bestowed upon you : and 
since " it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," 
that he would enlighten and lead the advancing 
generation in the way they should go. That in all 
the perils and all the mischances which may threaten 
or befall our United Republic, in after times, he would 
raise up from among your sons, deliverers to enlight- 
en her Councils, to defend her freedom, and if need 
be to lead her armies to victory. And should the 
gloom of the year of Independence ever again over- 
spread the sky, or the metropolis of your empire be 
once more destined to smart under the scourge of an 
invader's hand, that there never may be found wan- 
ting among the children of your country a warrior to 
bleed, a statesman to counsel, a chief to direct and 
govern, inspired with all the virtues, and endowed 
with all the faculties, which have been so signally 
displayed in the life of James Monroe. 



MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. 



While the possession of brilliant genius or talents, 
will not be claimed for Janmes Monroe, even by his 
warmest admirers, it will not, on the other hand, be 
denied, that he carefully improved the varied and 
numerous advantages he enjoyed, during a protracted 
public career ; and that, as the acquisitions of a long 
experience, he added, to his natural prudence and good 
sense, a tact, and a knowledge of men, which eminently 
fitted him for a successful politician. When, there- 
fore, he proposed, in 1814, as Secretary of War, his 
measure for the increase of the army, to which the 
term of "conscription" was opprobriously, yet un- 
justly applied, he foresaw that it might seriously affect 
his popularity ; and, inasmuch as his name had been 
proposed as the successor of Mr. Madison, he came 
to the deliberate determination, after consultation with 
his confidential friends, to which he would unquestion- 
ably have adhered, to decline standing as a candidate, 
in the event of the continuance of the war. The 
peace, however, relieved him from this position of 
embarrassment, and his friends at once began, openly 
and zealously, to advocate his selection as the candi- 
date of the republican party. 

Other candidates for the nomination were likewise 



298 Monroe's administration. 

proposed by their respective friends. In November, 
1815, Aaron Burr suggested to Joseph Alston, his son- 
in-law, and ex-governor of South Carolina, the pro- 
priety of bringing forward .General Andrew Jackson, 
of Tennessee. Had this been done, and had due 
advantage been taken of the enthusiastic attachment 
of the people of the South and West to the hero of 
the Creek war, and the brave defender of New Or- 
leans, the movement might have been successful ; but, 
in consequence of severe domestic afflictions, though 
concurring with Colonel Burr in opinion, Mr. Alston 
was not disposed to take any active part in the can- 
vass, and therefore nothing was done to further the 
project. 

Daniel D. Tompkins, the governor of New York, 
was also urged, with some pertinacity at first, by the 
citizens of his own state ; but on discovering that his 
chances were hopeless, they no longer pressed liis 
name ; and the opposition to Mr. Monroe, within the 
pale of the republican party, finally centered on Wil- 
liam H. Crawford, of Georgia, who had succeeded the 
former in the charge of the War Department. 

The congressional caucus was held on the 16th day 
of March, 1816 ; and upon balloting for a candidate 
for president, Mr. Monroe received sixty-five votes, 
and Mr. Crawford fifty-four ; whereupon, the former 
was declared duly nominated. The opposing candi- 
dates for the nomination for the vice-presidency were 
Daniel D. Tompkins of New York, and Simon Snyder 
of Pennsylvania, both governors of their respective 



Monroe's administration. 299 

states. On the ballot, the former received eighty- 
five votes, and the latter thirty. 

Disheartened as were the federalists as a party ; 
a.nd conscious, as they must have been, that their 
opposition to the war of 1812, and their unwise exul- 
tation over the reverses sustained by the American 
troops, prompted rather by their anxiety to witness 
the disgrace of Mr. Madison than by any sympathy 
for the British cause, had greatly diminished the num- 
ber of their friends, and increased that of their oppo- 
nents ; they were, nevertheless, not yet disposed quite 
to abandon the field. It was thought best to select a 
candidate for the presidency, in order to keep up the 
party organization, though they, of course did not 
anticipate success. They regarded this as important, 
because they endeavored to console themselves with 
the hope, that divisions, by which they might profit 
if they remained together, would soon arise in the 
ranks of the dominant party. Aware, however, that 
it would not do to exhibit their weakness, by putting 
forward, as the leader of their forlorn hope, one of 
the ultra opponents of the war, they selected as their 
candidate, by general consent, Rufus King, of New 
York, and formerly of Massachusetts, who, though he 
had originally voted against the declaration of war, 
had distinguished himself by his patriotic exertions in 
providing for the defence of his adopted state, and in 
assisting to raise and equip her volunteer regiments 
and militia quotas. 

But little opposition was offered to the election of 

13* 



300 Monroe's administration. 

the republican candidates. In the electoral colleges, 
Messrs. Monroe and Tompkins received one hundred 
and eighty-three votes each. Rufus King received 
thirty-four votes for the office of president, and John 
E. Howard, of Massachusetts, twenty-two for that of 
vice-president. The remaining electoral votes for the 
vice-presidency were given for different persons. 

The ceremony of the inauguration took place on the 
4th of March, 1817. Escorted by a large cavalcade 
of citizens, the president and vice-president elect left 
the residence of the former, and proceeded to the Hall 
of Congress, where the ex-president, the judges of 
the Supreme Court, the members of the Senate, some 
of the foreign ministers, and other official dignitaries, 
were already assembled. Entering the Senate-cham- 
ber, the vice-president took the oath of office, and was 
conducted to the chair. The Senate then adjourned, 
and, with the other persons present, accompanied the 
president to the portico, where he delivered his inau- 
gural address, and took the oath of office, in the pre- 
sence of his assembled fellow citizens. 

It had become customary to regard the inaugural 
of a new president, as furnishing an index to the policy 
which would be pursued during his administration. It 
was, of course, anticipated by every one, and there- 
fore none could be surprised or disappointed, that Mr. 
Monroe would follow out the same line of public con- 
duct adopted by his predecessor. The address was 
favorably received, and its firm and decided, yet mild 
and liberal lone, elicited expressions of approbation in 



Monroe's admimstration. 301 

every quarter. After referring to the highly favored 
condition of the country, and the value and importance 
of the union, he proceeded to point out the dangers 
that menaced their existence, and in what manner 
they should be guarded against : — 

"In explaining my sentiments," he said, "on this 
subject, it may be asked : what raised us to the present 
happy state 1 How did we accomplish the revolution? 
How remedy the defects of the first instrument of our 
union, by infusing into the national governrrient suffi- 
cient power for national purposes, without impairing 
the just rights of the states, or affecting those of indi- 
viduals ? How sustain and pass with glory through 
the late wart The government has been in the hands 
of the people. To the people, therefore, and to the 
faithful and able depositaries of their trust, is the credit 
due. Had the people of the United States been edu- 
cated in different principles, had they been less intelli- 
gent, less independent, or less virtuous, can it be 
believed that we should have maintained the same 
steady and consistent career, or been blessed with the 
same success 1 While, then, the constituent body 
retains its present sound and healthful state, every- 
thincT will be safe. Thev will choose competent and 
faithful representatives for every department. It is 
only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, 
when they degenerate into a populace, that they are 
incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation 
is then an easy attainment, and a usurper soon found. 
The people themselves become the willing instruments 



302 Monroe's administration. 

of their own debasement and ruin. Let us then look 
to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full 
force. Let us by all wise and constitutional measures 
promote intelligence among the people, as the best 
means of preserving our liberties. 

"Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of 
attention. Experiencing the fortune of other nations, 
the United States may again be involved in war, and 
it may, in that event, be the object of the adverse 
party to overset our government, to break our union, 
and demolish us as a nation. Our distance from 
Europe, and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of 
our government, may form some security against these 
dangers, but they ought to be anticipated and guarded 
against. Many of our citizens are engaged in com- 
merce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain 
degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many 
are engaged in the fisheries. These interests are ex- 
posed to invasion in the wars between other powers, 
and we should disregard the faithful admonitions of 
experience if we did not expect it. We must support 
our rights, or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, 
our liberties. A people who fail to do it can scarcely 
be said to hold a place among independent nations. 
National honor is national prosperity of the highest 
value. The sentiment in the mind of every citizen is 
national strength. It ought, therefore, to be cherishedi 

"To secure us against these dangers, our coast and 
inland frontiers should be fortified, our army and navy, 
regulated upon just principles as to the force of each, 



Monroe's administration. 303 

to be kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed 
on the best practicable footing. To put our extensive 
coast in such a state of defence as to secure our cities 
and interior from invasion, will be attended with ex- 
pense, but the work, when finished, will be permanent ; 
and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of 
invasion, by a naval force superior to our own, aided 
by a few thousand land troops, would expose us to a 
greater expense, without taking into the estimate the 
loss of property and distress of our citizens, than would 
be sufficient for this great work. Our land and naval 
forces should be moderate, but adequate to the neces- 
sary purposes : the former to garrison and preserve 
our fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a 
foreign foe, and, while constituting the elements of a 
greater force, to preserve the science, as well as all 
the necessary implements of war, in a state to be 
brought into activity in the event of war ; the latter, 
retained within the limits proper in a state of peace, 
might aid in maintaining the neutrality of the United 
States with dignity in the wars of other powers, and 
in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. 
In time of war, with the enlargement of which the 
great naval resources of the country render it suscep- 
tible, and which should be dul}^ fostered in time of 
peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an 
auxiliary of defence and as a powerful engine of 
annoyance, to diminish the calamities of war, and to 
bring the war to a speedy and honorable termination. 
"But it ought always to be held prominently in 



304 Monroe's administration. 

view, that the safety of these states, and of every- 
thing dear to a free people, must depend in an eminent 
degree on the mihtia. Invasions may be made too 
formidable to be resisted by any land and naval force 
which it would comport either with the principles of 
our government, or the circumstances of the United 
States, to maintain. In such cases, recourse must be 
had to the great body of the people, and in a manner 
to produce the best effect. It is of the highest impor- 
tance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained, 
as to be prepared for any emergency. The arrange- 
ment should be such as to put at the command of the 
government the ardent patriotism and youthful vigor 
of the country. If formed on equal and just principles, 
it cannot be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes 
the pressure, and not the laws which provide a remedy 
for it. This arrangement should be formed, too, in 
time of peace, to be the better prepared for war. 
With such an organization of such a people, the United 
States have nothing to dread from foreign invasion. 
At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant 
men might always be put in motion. 

"Other interests of high importance will claim 
attention ; among which, the improvement of our 
country by roads and canals, proceeding always with 
a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place. 
By thus facilitating the intercourse between the states, 
we shall add much to the convenience and comfort of 
our fellow citizens, much to the ornament of the coun- 
try, and what is of greater importance, we shall 



) 



Monroe's administration. 305 

shorten distances, and by making each part more ac- 
cessible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind 
tlie union more closely together. Nature has done so 
much for us, by intersecting the country with so many 
great rivers, bays and lakes, approaching from distant 
points so near to each other, that the inducement to 
complete the work seems to be peculiarly strong. A 
more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen, 
than is exhibited within the limits of the United States ; 
a territory so vast and advantageously situated, con- 
taining objects so grand, so useful, so happily connected 
in all their parts. 

" Our manufactures will hkewise require the system- 
atic and fostering care of the government. Possess- 
ing, as we do, all the raw materials, the fruit of our 
soil and industry, we ought not to depend, in the degree 
we have done, on supplies from other countries. 
While we are thus dependent, the sudden event of 
war, unsought and unexpected, cannot fail to plunge 
us into the most serious difficulties. It is important, 
too, that the capital which nourishes our manufactures 
should be domestic, as its influence in that case, instead 
of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would 
be felt advantageously on agriculture, and every other 
branch of industry. Equally important is it to pro- 
vide at home a market for our raw materials, as by 
extending the competition it will enhance the price, 
and protect the cultivator against the casualties inci- 
dent to foreign markets. 

"With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate 



306 Monroe's administration. 

friendly relations, and to act with kindness and liberal- 
ity in all our transactions. Equally proper is it to 
persevere in our efforts to extend them the advantages 
of civilization. 

" The great amount of our revenue, and the flourish- 
ing state of the treasury, are a full proof of the com- 
petency of the national resources for any emergency, 
as they are of the w^illingness of our fellow citizens to 
bear the burdens which the pubhc necessities require. 
The vast amount of vacant lands, the value of which 
daily augments, forms an additional resource of great 
extent and duration. These resources, besides accom- 
plishing every other necessary purpose, put it com- 
pletely in the power of the United States to discharge 
the national debt at an early period. Peace is the 
time foj improvement, and preparation of every kind : 
it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that 
taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is 
most productive. 

" The executive is charged, officially, in the depart- 
ments under it, with the disbui'sement of the pubhc 
money, and is responsible for the faithful application 
of it to the purposes for which it is raised. The legis- 
lature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. 
It is its duty to see that the disbursement has been 
honestly made. To meet the requisite responsibility, 
every facility should be afforded to the executive, to 
enable it to bring the public agents intrusted with the 
public money strictly and promptly to account. No- 
thing should be presumed against them ; but if, with 



Monroe's administration. 307 

the requisite facilities, the public money is suffered to 
lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will not be 
the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be 
confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and 
want of tone in the administration which will be felt 
by the whole community. I shall do all that I can to 
secure economy and fidelity in this important branch 
of the administration, and I doubt not that the legisla- 
ture will perform its duty with equal zeal. A thor- 
ough examination should be regularly made, and I will 
promote it. 

" It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the 
discharge of these duties, at a time when the United 
States are blessed with peace. It is a state most con- 
sistent with their prosperity and happiness. It will 
be my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on 
the executive, on just principles, with all nations, claim- 
ing nothing unreasonable of any, and rendering *to 
each what is its due. 

" Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased 
harmony of opinion which pervades our Union. Dis- 
cord does not belong to our system; union is recom- 
mended, as well by the free and benign principles of 
our government, extending its blessings to every indi- 
vidual, as by the other eminent advantages attending 
it. The American people have encountered together 
great dangers, and sustained severe trials with suc- 
cess. They constitute one great family with a com- 
mon interest. Experience has enlightened us on some 
questions of essential importance to the country. The 



308 Monroe's administration. 

progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection 
and a faithful regard to every interest connected with 
it. To promote this harmony, in accordance with 
the principles of our republican government, and in a 
manner to give them the most complete effect, and to 
advance, in all other respects, the best interests of 
our country, will be the object of my constant and 
zealous exertions. 

" Never did a government commence under auspi- 
ces so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. 
If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or 
modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so 
gigantic, — of a people so prosperous and happy. In 
contemplating what we have still to perform, the 
heart of every citizen must expand with joy, when he 
reflects how near our government has approached to 
perfection ; that in respect to it, we have no essential 
improvement to make ; that the great object is to 
preserve it in the essential principles and features 
which characterize it, and that that is to be done by 
preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of 
the people ; and as a security against foreign dan- 
gers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable 
to the support of our independence, our rights and 
liberties. If we persevere in the career in which we 
have advanced so far, and in the path already traced, 
we cannot fail, under the favor of a gracious Provi- 
dence, to attain the high destiny which seems to 
await us. 

"In the administrations of the illustrious men 



Monroe's AnMixisxRATiov. 309 

who have preceded me in this high station, with some 
of whom I have been connected' by the closest ties 
from early life, examples are presented which will al- 
ways be found highly instructive and useful to their 
successors. From these I shall endeavor to derive all 
the advantages which they may afford. Of my im- 
mediate predecessor under whom so important a por- 
tion of this great and successful experiment has been 
made, I shall be pardoned for expressing my earnest 
wishes, that he may long enjoy in his retirement, the 
affections of a grateful country, the best reward of 
exalted talents and the most faithful and meritorious 
services. Relvin": on the aid to be derived from the 
other departments of government, I enter on the trust 
to which I have been called by the suffrages of my 
fellow citizens, with my fervent prayers to the Al- 
mighty that he will be graciously pleased to continue 
to us that protection which he has already so conspic- 
uously displayed in our favor." 

Mr. Monroe selected his cabinet from among his 
own party friends, — those, too, who had been in favor 
of the war. John Quincy Adams, then minister to 
England, was appointed Secretary of State ; William 
H. Crawford, of Georgia, was appointed Secretary 
the Treasury, in the place of Mr. Dallas, w^ho had 
resigned the office in the fall of 1816, and died in the 
following January ; and Isaac Shelby, governor of 
Kentucky, was appointed Secretary of war. Mr. 
Crow^ninshield was continued in office as Secretary 
of the navy, Mr. Rush as attorney general, and Mr. 



310 Monroe's administration. 

Meigs as postmaster general. Governor Shelby sub- 
sequently declined the appointment tendered to him, 
on account of his advanced age ; and John C. Calhoun 
of South Carolina, was appointed in his stead. 

In regard to the minor offices, Mr. Monroe pursued 
nearly the same course. A large proportion of them 
were already filled by republicans, and with respect 
to them, — fortunately, perhaps, for his own populari- 
ty, — he was not required to give dissatisfaction to any 
of his friends, by making selections, and indicating his 
preferences. The federalists had nothing to hope 
from him ; his course as minister to France and Sec- 
retary of State had rendered him particularly obnox- 
ious to them ; and he had shown, throughout his whole 
public career, that his party predilections were strong 
and decided. Previous to his inauguration, he had 
been counselled by General Jackson, with whom he 
was on terms of friendly intimacy, to disregard parti- 
san considerations in the construction of his cabinet, 
and the bestowal of offices, and to appoint the best 
men, irrespective of their poUtical affinities ; in order 
that, by so doing, the bitterness of party spirit might 
be allayed, and, as the great majority of the federal- 
ists were, in truth, republicans at heart, all might be 
induced to join with them, and form one great and 
united republican brotherhood. 

Captivating as was this advice, in theory, Mr. Mon- 
roe's experience taught him, what General Jackson 
himself afterwards learned in a similar manner, that 
it could not be easily reduced to practice. The for- 



Monroe's administration. 311 

mer therefore resolved, to appoint none except his 
own political friends to office, except for special rea- 
sons, and in a few unimportant cases ; yet, at the 
same time, in so far as he might, without doing vio- 
lence to the tenets of the republican school in which 
he was reared, to propose and encourage the adoption 
of measures of internal policy, calculated to promote 
the welfare, and advance the interests, of all classes 
and sections of his countrymen. He was favored in 
the object he had in view, by the fact, that with the 
war had terminated foreign sympathies, and that 
thenceforth there were no British or French factions 
known in the country. While, then, as a strictly re- 
publican president throughout his whole administra- 
tion, he bestowed official favors on those only w^ho 
had adhered to Jefferson and Madison, through weal 
and through woe, he disarmed the hostility of the 
federalists, with few exceptions, — and the latter mani- 
fested their unfriendly feelings, for the most part, only 
by their secret efforts to foment divisions in the now 
triumphant party, — and secured for his administra- 
tion an unexampled and almost unbounded popu- 
larity. 

But this whole subject was discussed so fully and 
so ably by Mr. Monroe, in his letter replying to that 
of General Jackson, which contained the advice allu- 
ded to, that justice to him requires that he should be 
allowed to speak for himself : "The election of a suc- 
cessor to Mr. Madison," says the letter, '' has taken 
place, and a new administration is to commence its 



312 Monroe's administration. 

service. The election has been made by the repubh- 
can party, and of a person known to be devoted to 
that cause. How shall he act ] How organize the 
administration] How fill the vacancies existing at 
the time? 

" The distinction between republicans and federal- 
ists, even in the southern, and middle, and western 
states, has not been fully done away. To give effect 
to free government, and secure it from future danger, 
ought not its decided friends, who stood firm in the 
day of trial, to be principally relied on 1 Would not 
the association of any of their opponents in the ad- 
ministration itself, wound their feelings, or, at least, 
of very many of them, to the injury of the republi- 
can cause 1 Might it not be considered, by the other 
party, as an offer of compromise with them, which 
would lessen the ignominy due to the counsels which 
produced the Hartford convention, and thereby have 
a tendency to revive that party on its former princi- 
ples ] My impression is, that the administration 
should rest strongly on the republican party, indulging 
toward the other a spirit of moderation, and evincing 
a desire to discriminate between its members, and to 
bring the whole into the republican fold as quietly as 
possible. Many men, very distinguished for their tal- 
ents, are of opinion that the existence of the federal 
party is necessary to keep union and order in the re- 
publican ranks ; that is, that free government cannot 
exist without parties. This is not my opinion. The 
first object is to save the cause, which can be done by 



Monroe's administration. 313 

those who are devoted to it only, and of course by- 
keeping them together; or, in other words, by not 
disgusting them by too hasty an act of hberahty to 
the other party, thereby breaking the generous spirit 
of the repubhcan party, and keeping ahve that of the 
federal party. The second is, to prevent the re-or- 
ganization and revival of the federal party, which, if 
my hypothesis is true, that the existence of party is 
not necessary to a free government, and the other 
opinion which I have advanced is well founded, that 
the great body of the federal party are republican, 
will not be found impracticable. To accomphsh both 
objects, and thereby exterminate all party divisions in 
our country, and give new strength and stability to 
our government, is a great undertaking, not easily ex- 
ecuted. I am, nevertheless, decidedly of opinion that 
it may be done ; and should the experiment fail, I 
shall conclude that its failure was imputable more to 
the want of a correct knowledge of all circumstances 
claiming attention, and of sound judgment in the mea- 
sures adopted, than to any other cause. I agree, I 
think, perfectly with you, in the grand object, that 
moderation should be show^n to the federal party, and 
even a generous policy be adopted toward it ; the 
only difference between us seems to be, how far shall 
that spirit be indulged in the outset ; and it is to make 
you thoroughly acquainted with my views on this 
highly important subject, that I have written you so 
freely upon it." 

Mr. Monroe was successful, in allaying the bitter- 



314 Monroe's administration. 

ness of spirit, so far as he was concerned ; he gave, 
by his mild and concihatory course, the finishing coup 
de grace to the federalism of '98 ; but he soon saw 
new divisions produced, and new combinations form- 
ed, under the auspices of the federal leaders, which 
must have gone far to convince him, that the views he 
had advanced, with some hesitation, indeed, in his let- 
ter to General Jackson, were opposed to the genius 
and spirit of the American people, and that, until the 
independence of thought and action characteristic of 
freemen had degenerated into the most grovelling ef- 
feminacy, they could not be practically illustrated. 

All the preliminary matters requisite for putting the 
new administration into motion, having been disposed 
of, or settled, Mr. Monroe left Washington the last 
of May, for a tour of inspection and observation 
through the middle, eastern, and western states ; it 
being his desire to become acquainted with the people 
and learn their wants, to ascertain how the machinery 
of government, remote from the central power, per- 
formed its functions, and to inform himself in regard 
to the resources of the country, and the means neces- 
sary to develop them. He likewise desired, from his 
own personal inspection, to discover the vulnerable 
points on the sea-coast, and decide how and in what 
manner it would be best to provide for their security. 

He passed through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New- 
York, and the chief towns in Connecticut and Rhode 
Island, to Boston. Then, having visited most of the 
places of interest in Massachusetts, he travelled 



Monroe's administration. 315 

through Maine, New-Hampshire, and Vermont. From 
the latter state he crossed over to Plattsburgh, in 
New-York, and traversed the country intervening be- 
tween the Champlain and St. Lawrence. The pubhc 
works on Lake Ontario were inspected, and he then 
proceeded to Detroit, by way of Lake Erie. From 
Detroit he returned to the seat of government, through 
the forests of Michigan territory, and the states of 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Few of the fa- 
cilities for travelling at present enjoyed were then 
known, and the journey was consequently long, labo- 
rious, and fatiguing ; yet he was cheered everywhere 
on his route, by the demonstrations of respect mani- 
fested towards him. Political friends and opponents 
cordially united in tendering to him a cordial recep- 
tion. Wherever he went he was sure to meet with a 
hearty welcome ; and he, in turn, won many friends 
by the suavity and agreeableness of his manners, and 
deep and sincere interest that he exhibited in every- 
thing brought under his notice or observation. 

The fifteenth Congress assembled for its first regu- 
lar session, on the first day of December, 1817, arid 
adjourned on the 20th of April following. The repub- 
licans were in a large majority ; there being but very 
few prominent federalists returned to this Congress. 
Rufus King, of New York, Harrison G. Otis, of Mas- 
sachusetts, and Alexander C. Hanson, of Maryland, 
were the only prominent federalists in the Senate ; 
and Mr. King was already more than suspected of a 

design — which suspicion subsequently proved true — to 

14 



316 Monroe's administration. 

abandon the falling fortunes of his party. Timothy 
Pitkin, of Connecticut, still retained his seat in the 
House, but vacated it at the close of this Congress. 
Associated with him in sentiment, were Henry Shaw, 
of Massachusetts, and John Sergeant of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Among the republicans in the Senate, were George 
W. Campbell, of Tennessee, late Secretary of the 
treasury ; James Fisk, of Vermont ; Mahlon Dicker- 
son, of New Jersey ; James Barbour and John W- 
Eppes, of Virginia ; Nathaniel Macon, of North Caro- 
lina ; John Gaillard, of South Carolina ; William C. 
C. Claiborne, of Louisiana ; and John J. Crittenden, 
of Kentucky. The leading republican members of 
the House of Reprsentatives, were Marcus Morton, 
of Massachusetts ; John W. Taylor and James Tall- 
madge, of New-York ; Adam Seybert of Pennsylva- 
nia ; Louis McLane, of Delaware ; Samuel Smith, 
of Maryland ; Philip P. Barbour, WiUiam A. Bur- 
well, John Floyd, and Charles F. Mercer, of Virginia ; 
William Lowndes, of South Carolina ; John Forsyth, 
of Georgia ; and Henry Clay, of Kentucky. 

Mr. Clay was re-elected speaker of the House by 
an almost unanimous vote ; and bolh that body and 
the Senate having completed their organization, on 
the 2d of December, the president communicated his 
annual message. After remarking on the happy and 
prosperous condition of the countay, the revival of 
business consequent on the restoration of tranquility, 
the re-establishment of public and private credit, and 



Monroe's administration. 317 

the harmony of sentiment now generally prevailing 
instead of the bitter and violent prejudices that for- 
merly existed, he informed Congress that an amicable 
arrangement had been entered into with Great Brit- 
ain, providing for the reduction of the naval force of 
both powers on the lakes ; that negotiations with 
Spain on the subject of spoliations were still pending, 
but with every reasonable prospect of a favorable ter- 
mination ; and that with other nations and powers, the 
relations of the United States, were on a friendly 
footing. 

A gratifying view of the finances of the country 
was presented : " In calling your attention," he said, 
"to the internal concerns of our country, the view 
which they exhibit is peculiarly gratifying. The pay- 
ments which have been made into the treasury show 
the very productive state of the public revenue. Af- 
ter satisfying the appropriations made by law for the 
support of the civil government, and of the military 
and naval establishments, embracing suitable provision 
for fortification, and for the gradual increase of the 
navy, paying the interest of the public debt, and ex- 
tinguishing more than eighteen millions of the princi- 
pal, within the present year, it is estimated that a bal- 
ance of more than six millions of dollars will remain 
in the treasury on the first day of January, applicable 
to the current service of the ensuing year. 

" The payments into the treasury during the year 
one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, on account 
of imports and tonnage, resulting principally from du- 



318 Monroe's administration. 

ties which have accrued in the present year, may be 
fairly estimated at twenty millions of dollars ; inter- 
nal revenues, at two millions five hundred thousand ; 
public lands, at one million five hundred thousand; bank 
dividends and incidental receipts, at five hundred thou- 
sand ; making, in the whole, twenty-four millions and 
five huridred thousand dollars. 

" The annual permanent expenditure for the sup- 
port of the civil government, and of the army and 
navy, as now established by law, amounts to eleven 
millions eight hundred thousand dollars ; and for the 
sinking fund, to ten millions ; making, in the whole, 
twenty one millions eight hundred thousand dollars : 
leaving an annual excess of revenue, beyond the ex- 
penditure, of two millions seven hundred thousand 
dollars, exclusive of the balance estimated to be in the 
treasury on the first day of January, one thousand 
eiwht hundred and eio^hteen. 

" In the present state of the treasury, the whole 
of the Louisiana debt may be redeemed in the year 
1819 ; after which, if the public debt continues as it 
now is, above par, there will be annually about five 
millions of the sinking fund expended, until the year 
1S25, when the loan of 1812, and the stock created 
by funding treasury-notes, will be redeemable. 

" It is also estimated that the Mississippi stock will 
be discharged during the year 1819 from the proceeds 
of the public lands assigned to that object, after which 
the receipts from those lands will annually add to the 
public revenue the sum of one million five hundred 



Monroe's administratiOxN. 319 

thousand dollars, making the permanent annual reve- 
nue amount to twenty six millions of dollars, and leav- 
ing an annual excess of revenue, after the year 1819, 
beyond the permanent authorized expenditure, of more 
than four millions of dollars." 

The message then called the attention of Congress 
to the importance of making provision for the improve- 
ment, in organization and discipline, of the militia ; 
the advancement of the liberal and humane policy of 
the government towards the Indian tribes ; and the 
fortification of the sea-coast. As the revenue arising 
from imposts and tonnage, and from the sale of the 
public lands, promised in future to be amply suflicient 
for the support of the government, the president re- 
commended the repeal of the internal taxes. He also 
recommended the continued attention of Congress to 
the manufacturing interests of the country ; and the 
adoption, by the states, of an amendment to the na- 
tional constitution, authorizing the proceeds of the 
public lands to be expended on objects of general im- 
provement. His language on the latter subject was 
as follows : — 

"When we consider the vast extent of territory 
within the United States, the great amount and value 
of its productions, the connection of its parts, and 
other circumstances on which their prosperity and 
happiness depend, we cannot fail to entertain a high 
sense of the advantage to be derived from the facility 
which may be afforded in the intercourse between 
them, by means of good roads and canals. Never did 



320 MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 

a country of such vast extent offer equal inducements 
to improvements of this kind, nor ever were conse- 
quences of such magnitude involved in them. As 
this subject was acted on by Congress at the last ses- 
sion, and there may be a disposition to revive it at 
present, I have brought it into view for the purpose 
of communicating my sentiments on a very important 
circumstance connected with it, with that freedom and 
candor which a regard for the public interest and a 
proper respect for Congress require. A difference of 
opinion has existed, from the first formation of our 
Constitution to the present time, among our most en- 
lightened and virtuous citizens, respecting the right 
of Congress to establish such a system of improve- 
ment. Taking into view the trust with which I am 
now honored, it would be improper, after what has 
passed, that this discussion should be revived with an 
uncertainty of my opinion respecting the right. Dis- 
regarding early impressions, I have bestowed on the 
subject all the deliberation which its great importance, 
and a just sense of my duty, required, and the result 
is a settled conviction in my mind, that Congress do 
not possess the right. It is not contained in any of 
the specified powers granted to Congress, nor can I 
consider it incidental to, or a necessary means, view- 
ed on the most liberal scale, for carrying into effect 
anv of the powers which are specifically granted. 
In communicating this result, I can not resist the obli- 
gation which I feel, to suggest to Congress the pro- 
priety of recommending to the states an adoption of 



Monroe's administration. 321 

an amendment to the constitution, which shall give 
the right in question. In cases of doubtful construc- 
tion, especially of such vital interest, it comports with 
the nature and origin of our republican institutions, 
and will contribute much to preserve them, to apply 
to our constituents for an explicit grant of the power. 
We may confidently rely, that if it appears to their 
satisfaction that the power is necessary, it will be 
granted. 

" In this case I am happy to observe, that experi- 
ence has afforded the most ample proof of its utility, 
and that the benign spirit of conciliation and harmony 
which now manifests itself throughout our union 
promises to such a recommendation the most prompt 
and favorable result. I think proper to suggest, also, 
in case this measure is adopted, that it be recommen- 
ded to the states to include in the amendment sought, 
a right in Congress to institute likewise, seminaries of 
learning, for the all important purpose of diffusing 
knowledge among our fellow-citizens throughout the 
United States." 

Almost the first business, after the opening of the 
session of Congress, was that of relieving the people 
from the pecuniary burdens imposed during the war. 
Foremost among the advocates of the payment of the 
public debt, were the men by whose votes the war 
had been declared, and the debt created. Headed by 
William Lowndes, the able and energetic chairman of 
the committee of ways and means, they promptly sus- 
tained such measures as were necessary to provide 



322 Monroe's administration. 

for the liquidation of the liabiUties of the general gov 
ernment ; and the good work commenced through 
their instrumentality, and under their auspices, was 
finally completed during the administration of Andrew 
Jackson. 

Mississippi having adopted a state constitution, and 
presented the same through her delegate, she was ac- 
knowledged as a sovereign and independent member 
of the confederacy, and duly admitted into the union, 
on the 11th day of December, 1817. In April fol- 
lowing, the people of Illinois territory were author- 
ized, in like manner, to form a state government, and 
adopt a state constitution, preparatory to their ad- 
mission into the union. 

The internal duties were early abolished by act of 
Congress. Laws were also enacted at this session, 
fixing the compensation of Senators and members of 
the House of Representatives, at eight dollars per 
day, and eight dollars for every twenty miles' travel ; 
and granting pensions to the surviving officers and sol- 
diers of the revolutionary war. Great Britain having 
refused, in accordance with the monopolizing and sel- 
fish spirit that ever characterized her colonial policy, 
to allow her West Indian colonies to carry on a di- 
rect trade with the United States, on the same footing 
with the home government, a retaliatory act was 
passed closing our ports against British vessels coming 
from any such colony whose trade was thus interdic- 
ted. Early in the year 1817, a band of privateers 
and smugglers had taken possession of Galveston, in 



Monroe's administration. 323 

Texas, then claimed to be a part of the United States 
under the cession of Louisiana ; and an establishment 
had been made by similar persons, in the summer, on 
Amelia Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's river. 
The individuals concerned in these proceedings claimed 
to act under the authority of the Spanish colonies, 
then waging v^^ar for independence with the mother 
country : and it beinc: understood that a hostile enter- 
prise against the Floridas was on foot, in which aid 
and assistance were expected from certain residents 
of the United States, the American Congress promptly 
passed a law forbidding the citizens thereof to engage 
in any such project directed against the subjects or 
possessions of any government with which we were 
at peace. Both establishments were subsequently 
broken up, by the officers or agents of the United 
States, under the direction of President Monroe. 

Internal duties having been abolished, it became 
necessary to provide some means for raising the rev- 
enue required for the support of government ; and 
there was a powerful feeling manifested at this time 
in favor of affording protection to the infant manufac- 
tures of the country. Both circumstances combined — 
necessity on the one hand, and interest on the other — 
to create a strong party who were in favor of the 
imposition of duties avowedly protective. The duties 
on copper, cut-glass, Russia sheetings, iron, nails, and 
alum, were largely increased ; and a law was passed 
extending the act of 1816, laying duties on imported 

cotton and woollen goods, for a further period of seven 

14* 



324 Monroe's adi\hnistration. 

years. Such was the unanimity in Congress on this 
subject, that on the passage of the last mentioned act, 
there were but three dissenting voices in the Senate, 
and only sixteen in the House. 

The subject of internal improvements, to which the 
President had referred at such length in his message, 
early engaged the attention of Congress. Mr. Clay 
zealously advocated the passage of laws providing for 
an extensive system of internal improvements ; but 
those members of Congress understood to be more in 
the confidence of the president, combatted his views 
with equal earnestness, and opposed the adoption of 
any system or measure relating to the subject, at least 
until the constitution had been properly amended, so 
as to confer the power. The committee in the House, 
to whom the consideration of the question was referred, 
made a report in favor of appropriating the dividends 
of the United States on its stock in the national bank 
to such objects. This project at once encountered 
opposition. Repeated debates, of a most excited and 
interesting character — the main question discussed 
being the constitutionality of the measure — took place 
in both houses. At one stage of the discussion, a vote 
was taken in the House of Representatives, indicating 
a majority of fifteen in favor of such appropriation of 
the public funds. It was soon whispered about, how- 
ever, in the political circles of the capital, that the 
president would feel constrained, in conformity with 
the views and principles he had avowed in his mcs< 
sage, to veto any bill of that character presented to 



Monroe's administration. 325 

him for his signature, prior to the amendment of the 
constitution which he had suggested. The whole 
subject was, therefore, ultimately disposed of, by a 
postponement to a future day, and was not called up, 
or again acted on, during the session. 

This session was also signalised by the introduction 
of a proposition which afterwards formed one of the 
questions in difference between the republican party, 
and the seceders therefrom under the leadership of 
John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. The latter 
gentleman moved an appropriation providing for a 
special minister to Buenos Ayres and the provinces of 
La Plata, to express the sympathy of the United States 
with them in their struggle for independence, and to 
open the way for the establishment of future political 
relations on a friendly footing. Mr. Forsyth, who 
had been transferred to the House, and other republi- 
can members, denounced the measure as in fact adopt- 
ing the doctrines of the Holy Alliance, in the condem- 
nation of which all united, and attempting to engraft 
them upon the foreign policy of the United States, as 
connected with the republics in South America, then 
first struggling into existence. Mr. Clay defended his 
motion in an able, animated, and eloquent speech ; in 
which he maintained that his only object was to en- 
courage the South American patriots in well doing, 
and that he had no ulterior designs in view, save that 
of establishing friendly relations with the new govern- 
ments that might be formed, which all must admit to 
be highly desirable. A majority, however, thought 



326 MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 

differently from Mr. Clay, and his motion was lost by 
a vote of one hundred and fifteen to forty-five. 

Notwithstanding the exciting debates to which these 
discussions gave rise, general harmony prevailed 
throughout the whole session. With the war termi- 
nated the exhibition of the foreign sympathies which 
previous thereto had been so often witnessed. There 
was no longer a French party, or a British party. 
Old prejudices were not entirely done away, but they 
were now manifested mainly in the personal rivalries 
that succeeded the violent contests of the former 
administration. The fires of party were not, it is true, 
entirely subdued ; they only smouldered for the time, 
ready to burst out anew, when new combinations and 
factions should be formed. Yet this was postponed 
till after the retirement of Mr. Monroe from the 
executive chair, and during the remainder of his ad- 
ministration, there is little left for the historian to 
chronicle, save the proceedings of the members of ' 
Congress at their annual sessions, who for the most 
part assembled together in peace, and separated in 
unity. 

While Congress was in session, during the winter 
of 1817-18, some changes had been made in the cabi- 
net. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was ap- 
pointed Secretary of War, in the place of Governor 
Shelby, who declined the appointment, on the IGth of 
December, 1817, and, on the same day, William Wirt, 
of Virginia, was appointed attorney-general, to fill the 
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Rush, 
who was sent as minister to England. 



moiVroe's administration. 327 

Shortly after Congress adjourned, the President, ac- 
companied by the Secretaries of war and the navy, 
visited the towns and coasts of Chesapeake bay, on a 
tour of inspection, in order to ascertain how they 
might be the most effectually protected against an in- 
vading enemy, and returned again to Washington, 
through the interior of Virginia. He arrived at the 
seat of government on the 17th of June, having been 
much gratified by the respectful attentions everywhere 
paid to him by his fellow-citizens. 

Repeated outrages having been committed on the 
southern frontiers of the union, in the summer and 
fall of 1817, by the Creek and Seminole Indians, who 
had taken refuge in Florida, after their discomfiture 
by General Jackson in the campaign of 1813 — 14, 
prompt measures were adopted for the punishment of 
their perpetrators, and the protection of the citizens 
against further aggressions. General Jackson was ac- 
cordingly authorized to take command of the troops in 
that quarter, and to inflict exemplary punishment upon 
the savages ; he being further empowered to pur- 
sue them into the Floridian territory, if, in his opinion, 
it should be absolutely necessary. In the course of 
his operations. General Jackson obtained irrefragable 
evidence that the hostile Indians received aid and en- 
couragement from the Spanish authorities of Florida; 
and he became fully convinced that the peace and se- 
curity of the frontier were entirely out of the ques- 
tion, while the abettors of murder and rapine retain- 
ed the power they had hitherto wielded. Influenced 



328 MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 

by these considerations, he not only pursued the sava- 
ges into the Spanish i/^rritory, but drove them to take 
rcfugre in the everglades and swamps of southern 
Florida, and completed the restoration of tranquility 
by taking military possession of St. Marks and Pen- 
sacola. 

Congress again came together on the IGth of No- 
vember, 1818, when the president apprised them of 
the proceedings which had taken place in Florida, and 
expressed his approbation of the conduct of General 
Jackson. He further stated, however, that inasmuch 
as negotiations were then pending with Spain for the 
cession of the Floridas in payment of the American 
colonies for spoliations, and as it was not to be pre- 
sumed that the Spanish officers acted under the or- 
ders of their government, he had directed Pensacola 
to be immediately surrendered to any person author- 
ized to receive it, and St. Marks to any force sufficient 
to protect it against the savages and their associates. 
Efforts were forthwith made in Congress to procure a 
vote censuring the conduct of General Jackson, whose 
fast increasing popularity had, in all probability, al- 
ready excited the envy of politicians. Mr. Clay and 
Mr. Calhoun in particular favored this movement ; 
but the president himself, and Mr. Adams, the secre- 
tary of state, who had charge of the Spanish negoti- 
ation, warmly espoused the cause of the American 
commander. Committees in both houses made reports 
disapproving of the general's proceedings. In the 
Senate all further action was suspended, on the ap- 



monrok's admimstration. 329 

pearance of an able vindication of his conduct, writ- 
ten by himself, in the columns of the National Intelli- 
gencer. The House committee had reported, in ad- 
dition, strong resolutions of censure ; but after an 
animated discussion, they were rejected by a very 
IcLTge majority. 

It appeared from the message of the president, that 
the receipts into the treasury during the first three 
quarters of the year had exceeded seventeen millions 
of dollars, and that, after the payment of all existing 
appropriations, there would probably remain a surplus 
on the ensuing first dav of Januarv, of more than two 
millions of dollars. The gross revenue accruing from 
the customs during the whole year, was estimated at 
twentv-six millions of dollars ; and it was further 
stated, that the sale of the public lands had greatly 
exceeded, both in quantity and price, that of any for- 
mer year. 

Mr. Crowninshield resigned his position in the cabi- 
net, in consequence of declining health, on the 18th 
of November, 1818, and on the same daj'- Smith 
Thompson, of New-York, was appointed Secretary 
of the navy in his stead. 

After considerable diplomatic maneuvering, Mr. 
Rush had finally induced the British government to 
enter into a convention, on the 20th of October, 1818, 
conceding to the citizens of the United States the 
right to take fish, in common with the subjects of 
Great Britain, on the northern, western, and southern 
coasts of New Foundland ; establishing the boundary 



330 Monroe's administration. 

of the United States from the Lake of the Woods to 
the Rocky Mountains, on the 49th parallel, north lati- 
tude ; and extending the commercial convention be- 
tween the two countries, concluded in 1815, for the 
term of ten years. Mr. Rush made an ineffectual at- 
tempt to have the boundary line established beyond 
the Rocky Mountains, and the settlement of that 
vexed question was left for future negotiators. The 
convention having been submitted to the Senate, it 
was ratified by that body on the 28th of January, 
1819. 

The seizure of the Spanish ports in Florida did not 
prevent the amicable issue of the negotiations then 
pending ; and on the 22d of February, a treaty was 
concluded at Washington, by John Quincy Adams, 
on the part of the United States, and Senor Luis de 
Onis, the Spanish Envoy, in pursuance of which East 
and West Florida, with the adjacent islands, were 
forever ceded to the United States. In consideration 
of this cession, the United States agreed to waive all 
her claims to the territory between the Sabine and the 
Rio Bravo, hitherto in dispute, and that the former 
river should henceforth be the boundary between 
them and the Spanish Mexican possessions ; and fur- 
ther, that they would pay a sum not exceeding five 
millions of dollars, to their citizens, for spoliations 
committed by Spanish vessels of war. The provi- 
sions of this treaty were unsparingly condemned by 
many of the republican members of congress, and Mr. 
Clay denounced it in the most violent terms, on the 



moxroe's administration. 331 

floor of the House of Representatives. Some de- 
clared that Texas had been given away without a suit- 
able equivalent ; and others again insisted that the 
Rio Grande was the natural boundary of the United 
States on the southeast, and ought never to have been 
surrendered. The treaty, however, was unanimously 
ratified in the Senate, and all circumstances consider- 
ed, was probably as good a one as could then have 
been obtained. The possession of the Floridas gave 
to the United States the entire control of the Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts, from the St. Croix to the Sabine, and, 
in the bay of Pensacola, supplied them with what had 
been a great desideratum — a suitable naval depot and 
harbor on their southern frontier. 

Illinois was admitted into the union as a state, by 
resolution adopted on the 3d day of December 1818. 
Alabama territory was also authorized to adopt a state 
constitution at this session, and a territorial govern- 
ment was provided for Arkansas. 

Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, 1819, hav- 
ing, among other enactments, passed laws to protect 
the commerce of the United States, and to punish pi- 
racy ; reducing the rates of duty on imported wines; 
providing for the civilization and instruction of the 
Indian tribes ; regulating the coasting trade ; author- 
izing the president to take possession of the Floridas, 
and establishing a temporary government ; and pro- 
viding for the more perfect accountability of persons 
charged with the receipt and disbursement of the 
public revenues. 



332 Monroe's administration. 

During the recess, the president visited Charleston, 
Savannah, Augusta, and other places in the southern 
states, with the same objects in view which prompted 
his former tours in different sections of the country. 
Returning he proceeded through the Cherokee terri- 
tory to Nashville, and thence, by the way of Louis- 
ville and Lexington, to Washington, where he arrived 
early in the month of August. 

In the sixteenth Congress, the republicans were in 
an unusually large majority. Messrs. Dickerson, J. 
Barbour, Macon, and Gaillard, of the republican, and 
Mr, Otis, of the federal party, still remained in the 
Senate. The seat of Rufus King was temporarily va- 
cated, but in January, 1820, he was re-elected by the 
combined vote of his federal friends and the Anti-Clin- 
tonians in the New-York legislature ; it being now 
understood that he had abandoned, or was preparing 
to abandon, his old federal associations. The new 
prominent senators were Walter Lowrie, of Pennsyl- 
vania ; William Pinkney, of Maryland ; William R. 
King, of Alabama ; and James Brown, of Louis- 
iana. 

In the House, Mr. Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, again 
made his appearance ; with whom, in political senti- 
jment, were associated Henry Shaw, of Massachu- 
setts, and Samuel A. Foot, of Connecticut. Messrs. 
Morton, J. W. Taylor, McLane, Smith of Maryland, 
P. P. Barbour, Burwell, Floyd, Mercer, Lowndes and 
Clay, were again returned. Among the new republi- 
can members were Rollin C. Mallary, of Vermont ; 



Monroe's administration. 333 

Henry W, Edwards, of Connecticut ; John Randolph 
of Virginia ; and Benjamin Hardin, of Kentucky. 

The first annual session of this Congress commenced 
on the Gth of December, 1819. Mr. Clay was once 
more re-elected speaker of the House by nearly an 
unanimous vote. The chambers of the the two hou- 
ses in the new capitol being now nearly completed, 
their meetings were henceforth held in them. 

Pecuniary embarrassments, at one time assuming a 
most grave and threatening appearance, had been felt 
throughout the union during this year, but the condi- 
tion of the country being really prosperous, the de- 
rangement, which had been caused by excessive spe- 
culation, and the over issues of the banks, was of tem- 
porary duration. Still, the receipts into the treasury 
had been considerably diminished thereby, and the pen- 
sion law had created large additional demands. The 
former were stated in the president's message to 
amount to nineteen millions, up to the 30th of Sep- 
tember previous, and would probably come up to 
twenty-three millions for the whole year. After de- 
fraying all charges upon the treasury, of every char- 
acter, a considerable surplus would still remain. 

Inflations of the currency, as has been intimated, 
had promoted speculation, and when contractions be- 
came necessary, in order to protect the banks from 
complete insolvency, those in any wise dependent 
upon them naturally felt the pressure most severely. 
The manufacturing interest, then just fairly establish- 
ed, was for a time threatened with utter ruin. Many 



334 Monroe's administration. 

constituting, perhaps, a large proportion, had embark- 
ed in it without capital, but upon credit alone, and 
they were, of course, prostrated at the first crash. 
President Monroe could not be indifferent to this state 
of things, and he was disposed to go as far in afford- 
ing relief as was consistent with his, in the main, 
strict construction doctrines with respect to the con- 
stitution. He again recommended therefore, the sub- 
ject of giving further encouragement to domestic man- 
ufactures, paying due regard to the other great inte- 
rests of the nation, to the attention of Congress. 

Alabama was admitted into the union, by a joint 
resolution, adopted on the 14th of December, 1819. 
An attempt was made at this session, to pass a law 
giving additional protection to the manufacturing in- 
terest ; the bill was passed in the House, by a majoii- 
ty of twenty votes, but failed to receive the concur- 
rence of the Senate. In order to encourage emigra- 
tion to the western states and territories, and to in- 
crease the revenue derivable from the public lands, 
an act was passed authorizing sales to be made in half 
quarter sections, or eighty acres establishing the price 
per acre at one dollar and twenty-five cents, and abol- 
ishing the credit system on all sales from and after 
the 1st day of July, 1820. Unsuccessful attempts 
were made to procure the enactment of a uniform 
bankrupt law, and an amendment to the constitution 
providnig for a uniform mode of choosing presidential 
electors. The members from the northern and east- 
ern states generally favored the passage of the bank- 



Monroe's administration. 335 

rupt law, as their constituents had been the principaf 
sufferers during the late derangement in the moneta- 
ry affairs of the country ; but the southern and west- 
ern members resisted its adoption. 

But by far the most important question considered 
and discussed at this session, was that connected with 
the admission of Missouri into the union. At the pre- 
vious session, an attempt had been made to procure 
the passage of an act authorizing the people of the 
territory to form a state constitution. This encoun- 
tered a most violent opposition on the part of the 
northern members, and Mr. Otis, of Massachusetts, 
and Mr. King and Mr. Tallmadge of New-York, dis- 
tinguished themselves by their exertions to prevent 
the passage of the bill — taking the high and emphatic 
ground, that no additional state, tolerating the exist- 
ence of slavery, ought to be admitted into the union. 
They therefore insisted, as an indispensable prelimina- 
ry to the admission of Missouri, that her constitution 
must contain a fundamental and unalterable provision 
prohibiting the future removal or transportation of 
slaves into the territory ; and to that end, that the act 
authorizing a constitution to be formed should contain 
a clause expressly requiring the insertion of such a 
provision. As they openly avowed it to be their de- 
sire and intention to restrict the institution of slavery 
to its existing limits, they were called restriclionists. 
No definite action was had, however, at this time, 
and the subject was postponed for the action of the 
next Congress. 



336 Monroe's administration. 

Early, therefore, in the session of 1819-20, the Mis- 
souri question was revived, by the introduction of the 
act authorizing the people of the territory to form a 
state constitution. The war between the rival parties 
— for they were parties living in opposite quarters of 
the union and divided on sectional issues — now opened. 
The debates in both houses were exceedingly warm, 
and at times ominous of the dissolution of the confed- 
eracy. In the Senate, the battle was fought, with 
ability and zeal, by Rufus King and Walter Lowrie 
on the one side, and William Pinkney and James Bar- 
bour on the other. The champions of the south in 
the House were Henry Clay, John Randolph, and 
William Lowndes ; of the north, John Sergeant, John 
W. Taylor, and Samuel A. Foot. The speakers on 
the southern side of the question insisted, at the outset, 
that the pi'oposed restriction was unconstitutional, and 
a violation of the treaty by which Louisiana was 
ceded, as it stipulated for the preservation and pro- 
tection of the rights of the inhabitants of the trans- 
ferred territory ; and, moreover, if these positions 
were inadmissible, that it was inexpedient to agitate 
a question that could only promote discord and ill feel- 
ing, and that, if the restriction should be adopted by 
northern votes, it would be regarded as a direct inva- 
sion of the rights of the south, and the union would 
be at an end. Mr. Barbour, of the Senate, pro- 
nounced the subject to be "an ignited spark, which, 
communicated to an immense mass of combustion, 
would produce an explosion that would shake the 



Monroe's administration. 337 

union to its centre ;" and Mr. Walker, a member of 
the same body, from ttie state of Georgia, declared 
that he already heard the thunders roll, and could see 
" the father arrayed against the son, and the brother 
drawing the bloody sword from the bosom of the 
brother." 

On the other side, the northern members maintained 
their ground with great spirit and firmness. Mr. King 
argued that the power of Congress to impose the 
restriction was implied in the general authority to ad- 
mit new states ; and, in reference to the abstract ques- 
tion of slavery itself, he said, " that by the law of 
nature, and the eternal rule of justice, there could be 
no such thing as a right in a fellow creature to hold 
him and his posterity in bondage ; that treaties and 
constitutions ought to be construed in the sense of this 
great paramount law ; and that the toleration of slave- 
ry in the original states, and those formed from the 
original states — a toleration acknowledged to have 
grown out of necessity — could furnish no ground for 
originating this unjust institution, where such neces- 
sity did not exist." Mr. Lowrie was still more pointed 
in denouncing the institution of slavery ; and in the 
course of one of his speeches on the subject, after 
alluding to the remarks of southern speakers, he said: 
"If the alternative be, as gentlemen thus broadly inti- 
mate, a dissolution of the union, or the extension of 
slavery over this whole western country, I, for one, 
will choose the former." 

Daily the war of words grew warmer, and the 



338 Monroe's administration. 

excitement waxed higher and higher. Cassandras 
were not wanting to predict the downfall of Troy. 
The enemies of repubhcan institutions rejoiced that 
the problem of self-government was about to be demon- 
strated, to the discomfiture and confusion of those 
who had proposed it. The waves of anarchy began 
to surge violently over the ramparts of the constitution. 
The bond of the confederacy seemed about to be 
severed. At length, Mr. Clay, yielding the ground 
he had formerly maintained, proposed a compromise 
of the question, by the insertion of a section in the act, 
forever prohibiting slavery in all that part of the Mis- 
souri territory, except the state to be then formed, 
lying north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes 
north latitude — that line being the prolongation of the 
southern boundary of the present state of Missouri. 

Mr. Clay's proposition was like oil poured out on 
the troubled waters. The strife was hushed. The 
long agony was over. The ship of state, which had 
careened before the rude blasts of political contention, 
now rose erect, and sped away joyfully on her course 
— her sails filled with the soft breezes of peace and 
tranquillity, and a nation's prayers, like guardian 
angels, hovering around her track. 

The bill, as amended, was finally passed through 
both houses, and approved by the president. Efforts 
were made by some of the southern members, whose 
views were ultra on the slavery question, to prevail 
upon Mr. Monroe to withhold his signature ; but after 
takinp- the advice of his cabinet, who counselled him 



Monroe's administration. 339 

to approve the bill, he decided to put an end to the 
agitation by confirming the action of Congress. 

While the Missouri bill was under discussion in the 
Senate, an attempt was made to annex it as a rider to 
another bill, then pending, for the admission of Maine, 
hitherto a province of Massachusetts, but now, with 
the consent of the latter, presenting herself with a 
constitution as a separate state. The effort failed of 
success, and the act admitting Maine into the union 
became a law on the 3d day of March, 1820. The 
Missouri bill was signed on the 6th of the same month. 

Although the seizure of the posts in Florida had 
not prevented the conclusion of the treaty of 1819, 
providing for the cession of the territory, the Spanish 
monarch delayed its ratification, upon the alleged 
ground, that the citizens of the United States had 
manifested a hostile disposition towards Spain, by 
encouraging the revolutions taking place in her South 
American colonies, and that the general policy of the 
American government had been decidedly unfriendly. 
Mr. Monroe referred to this matter in his annual mes- 
sage, and in a further special communication, on the 
27th of March, informed Congress that Spain had been 
rebuked for her inexcusable delay, by the govern- 
ments of France and Russia ; and in view of this fact, 
he recommended a postponement of any action on the 
subject, till the ensuing session. On the 9th of May, 
the president apprised Congress that a new envoy had 
arrived from Spain, who had been instructed to insist 

upon the insertion of stipulations, against the alleged 

15 



340 Monroe's administration. 

injuries complained of, in the treaty, as the condition 
upon which alone it would be ratified. Fortunately, 
a change of ministry had been eftected in Spain, and 
the constitution of 1812 restored, just subsequent to 
the sailing of the minister ; otherwise the two coun- 
tries might at once have been involved in war. These 
facts being already known, President Monroe repeated 
his recommendation to postpone all action until Con- 
gress again assembled. Spain ultimately receded from 
her position, and ratified the treaty, which was an- 
nounced in the United States, by executive proclama- 
tion, on the 22d of February, 1821. 

Congress finally adjourned on the 15th of May, 
1820. Previous to the adjournment, a congressional 
caucus was held, for the nomination of candidates for 
president and vice-president at the approaching .elec- 
tion. There being no opposition to the re-nomination 
of Messrs. Monroe and Tompkins, they were selected 
bv general consent. The federalists presented no 
candidates at this election ; indeed, they had become 
almost merged in the repubhcan party. Some few 
remained aloof, and firmly refused to abandon one jot 
or tittle of their ancient faith ; waiting for new parties 
to be formed out of the overgrown dominant repub- 
hcan organization, and intending to unite with that 
whose sentiments corresponded the most nearly with 
their own. But the great body of the federahsts 
united with the republicans, and soon became so 
mingled up that their original individuality was en- 
tirely lost. 



Monroe's administration. 341 

No opposition worthy the name was offered to the 
election of Monroe and Tompkins. The former re- 
ceived two hundred and thirty-one of the two hundred 
and thirty-two electoral votes ; one vote being given 
in the electoral college of Massachusetts for John 
Quincy Adams. Mr. Tompkins received two hundred 
and eighteen votes. Richard Stockton, of New Jer- 
sey, and Robert G. Harper, of Maryland, both distin- 
guished federalists, together received nine votes — the 
former eight in Massachusetts, and the latter one in 
his own state. The remaining five votes were given 
to Messrs. Rodney and Rush, by Delaware and New 
Hampshire. 

The short session of the sixteenth Congress com- 
menced on the 13th of November, 1820, and termi- 
nated on the 3d of March, 1821. Mr. Clay having 
resigned the speakership, on account of the pressure 
of private engagements, an active canvass took place 
lor his successor. There were three prominent can- 
didates ; John W. Taylor, of New York, William 
Lowndes, of South Carohna, and Samuel Smith, of 
Maryland. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, was 
supported by the feeble array of federal members, 
probably in the hope of profiting by the divisions in 
the republican ranks. The first two days of the ses- 
sion were spent in balloting. Mr. Lowndes had a 
plurality of votes, on the second day, at four different 
times ; Mr. Taylor, at five times ; and Mr. Smith at 
three times. At length the northern members, who 
had voted for restricting slavery in Missouri at the 



342 Monroe's administration. 

previous session, united on Mr. Taylor, and with the 
assistance of some of the southern representatives, 
succeeded in electing him on the morning of the third 
day. 

From the president's message, it appeared that the 
foreign relations of the United States, wore a peace- 
ful aspect, with the exception of the difficulty with 
Spain, which was soon after brought to a favorable is- 
sue. " In looking: to the internal concerns of our 
country," said he, " you will, I am persuaded, derive 
much satisfaction from a view of the several objects 
to which, in the discharge of your official duties, your 
attention will be drawn. Among these, none held a 
more important place than the public revenue, from 
the direct operation of the power by which it is rais- 
ed on the people, and by its influence in giving effect 
to every other power of the government. The rev- 
enue depends on the resources of the country ; and 
the faciUty by which the amount required is raised, is a 
strong proof of the extent of the resources, and of the 
efficiency of the government. A few prominent facts 
will place this great interest in a just light before you. 
On the 30th of September, 1815, the funded and float- 
ing debt of the United States was estimated at one 
hundred and nineteen millions six hundred and thirty- 
five thousand five hundred and fifiy-eight dollars. If 
to this sum be added the amount of five per cent, 
stock subscribed to the bank of the United States, the 
amount of Mississippi stock, and of the stock which 
was issued subsequently to that date, the balances as- 



Monroe's administration. 343 

certained to be due to certain states for military ser- 
vices, and to individuals for supplies furnished and ser- 
vices rendered during the late war, the public debt 
may be estimated as amounting, at that date, and as 
afterwards liquidated, to one hundred and fifty-eight 
millions seven hundred and thirteen thousand and for- 
ty-nine dollars. On the 30th of vSeptember, 1820, it 
amounted to ninety one millions one hundred and 
ninety-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-three 
dollars — having been reduced, in that interval, by 
payments of sixty-six millions eight hundred and sev- 
enty-nine thousand one hundred and sixty-five dollars. 
During this term the expenses of the government of 
the United States were likewise defrayed in every 
branch of the civil, military, and naval establishments; 
the public edifices in this city have been rebuilt, with 
considerable additions ; extensive fortifications have 
been commenced, and are in a train of execution ; 
permanent arsenals and magazines have been erected 
in various parts of the union ; our navy has been con- 
siderably augmented, and the ordnance, munitions of 
war, and stores of the army and navy, which were 
much exhausted during the war, have been replen- 
ished, 

" By the discharge of so large a portion of the pub- 
lic debt, and the execution of such extensive and im- 
portant operations in so short a time, a just estimate 
may be formed of the great extent of our national re- 
sources. The demonstration is the more complete and 
gratifying, when it is recollected that the direct tax 



344 Monroe's administration. 

and excise were repealed soon after the termination 
of the late war, and that the revenue applied to :these 
purposes has been derived almost wholly from other 
sources. 

'' The receipts into the treasury, from every source 
to the 30th of September last, have amounted to six- 
teen millions seven hundred and ninety-four thousand 
one hundred and seven dollars and sixty-six cents ; 
while the public expenditures, to the same period, 
amounted to sixteen millions eight hundred and seven- 
ty-one thousand five hundred and thirty-four dollars 
and seventy-two cents ; leaving in the treasury, on 
that day, a sum estimated at one million nine hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. * * * 

" It is proper to add, that there is now due to the 
treasury, for the sale of public lands, twenty-two 
millions nine hundred and ninety-six thousand five 
hundred and forty-five dollars. In bringing the sub- 
ject to view, I consider it my duty to submit to Con- 
gress, whether it may not be advisable to extend to 
the purchasers of these lands, in consideration of the 
unfavorable change which has occurred since the 
sales, a reasonable indulgence. It is known that the 
purchases were made when the price of every arti- 
cle had risen to its greatest height, and that the instal- 
ments are becoming due at a period of great depres- 
sion. It is presumed that some plan may be devised 
by the wisdom of Congress, compatible with the pub- 
lic interest, which would afford great relief to these 
purchasers." 



Monroe's admixistration. 345 

On the second day of the session, the president 
communicated to the Senate a copy of the constitu- 
tion of tlie state of Missouri ; whereupon the subject 
was referred to a committee to examine the same, and 
report what action was necessary in the premises. 
The Senate adopted the requisite resolution for the 
admission of the new state, after quite an animated 
debate. In the House the Constitution was also refer- 
red to a committee, a majority of whom, through 
their Chairman, Mr. Lowndes, reported on the 25th 
of December, that the same was strictly republican, 
and concluded with a resolution, in the usual form, 
providing for the admission. Again were the section- 
al prejudices and feelings of the last session revived. 
The friends and opponents of slavery were once more 
pitted against each other. 

The report of Mr. Lowndes was referred directly 
to the committee of the whole, and the views embo- 
died therein, and the resolution accompanying it, were 
discussed for an entire week. The arguments used 
on both sides were similar to those of the previous 
session, although the particular question now was, 
whether or no the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth 
section of the third article of the state constitution 
adopted by Missouri should be retained. On taking 
the vote, the resolution introduced by Mr. Lowndes, 
on behalf of the committee, was lost by a majority of 
fourteen votes. The members from Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, voted unani- 



346 Monroe's administration. 

mously in favor of the resolution ; and the members 
from the northern states, with a few exceptions, voted 
against it. 

Still no final disposition of the question was made ; 
and when the votes of the electoral colleges came to be 
counted it was found that Missouri had chosen elec- 
tors who had met together and cast their votes for 
president and vice-president. This difficulty had been 
foreseen, and the Senate had adopted a resolution on 
the 13th of February, 1821 — the day previous to that 
appointed for counting the electoral votes — directing 
that all the votes should be counted, and that the re- 
sult should be declared, including those of the state 
of Missouri, and also not including them. The friends 
of the admission in the House strenuously opposed 
the adoption of the resolution, insisting that Missouri 
had complied with the necessary requisites, and that 
she was now a sovereign state, and could not be dis- 
franchi«sed. The resolution was adopted, however ; 
and the votes were counted, and the result declared, 
in the manner prescribed therein, although the procee- 
dings did not pass without interruption, — a fruitless, 
but persevering attempt, being made by John Ran- 
dolph and others, to have Missouri declared a state. 

Moderate and conciliatory counsels now prevailing 
the whole subject of the Missouri question was refer- 
red to a joint committee, of the two Houses. Mr. 
Clay, from this committee, reported the following reso- 
lution as a compromise, on the 26th of February. 

" Resolved, That Missouri shall be admitted into this 



moxroe's admimstration. 847 

union, on an equal footing witii the original states, in 

all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition, 

that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of 

the third article of the constitution, submitted on the 

part of said state to Congress, shall never be construed 

to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law 

shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any 

citizen of either of the states in this union, shall be 

excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges 

and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under 

the constitution of the United States : — Provided, that 

the legislature of the said state, by a solemn public 

act, shall declare the assent of the said state, to the 

said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the 

president of the United States, on or before the fourth 

Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the 

said act ; upon the receipt whereof, the president, by 

proclamation, shall announce the fact : whereupon, 

and without any further proceeding on the part of 

Congress, the admission of the said state into this 

union shall be considered as complete." 

Some opposition was manifested to the passage of 

this resolution ; but all parties were wearied with the 

protracted discussion, and on taking the vote, the 

resolution was adopted — eighty-seven voting in favor 

thereof, to eighty-one against it. On the 28th of 

February the Senate concurred in the resolution, and 

the president approved and signed it on the 2d of 

March. 

At this session of Congress, an act was passed 

15* 



348 Monroe's administration. 

reducing the peace establishment of the army to seven 
regiments of infantry, and four of artillery, and organ- 
izing the different departments of the staff into bu- 
reaus. Spain having at last ratified the treaty for the 
purchase of the Floridas, lav^^s w^ere enacted to carry 
it into effect, and extending the jurisdiction of the 
general government over the new acquisition. Mr. 
Clay once more brought forward his proposition for 
the acknowledgment of the independence of the South 
American republics, and succeeded in carrying his 
resolutions through the House. Nothing was done, 
however, in the Senate, in regard to this subject. It 
was generally understood that the president and his 
cabinet, with the exception of Mr. Adams, were 
averse to the adoption of Mr. Clay's resolutions. 

Mr. Barbour offered a resolution in the Senate, 
declaring the act of 1798, commonly called the sedi- 
tion act, unconstitutional, and directing the fines im- 
posed in pursuance thereof to be repaid to the persons 
who had been mulcted. The resolution gave rise to 
debate, and was finally negatived by a vote of twenty- 
four to nineteen — the majority being composed of 
federalists, and of other senators who considered that 
Congress did not possess the power thus to annul a 
law the constitutionality of which had been sustained 
by the United States' Courts. Propositions for the 
establishment of a national system of education, by 
means, of the revenue arising from the sale of the 
public lands, and prohibiting the reception of the bills 
of state banks issuing notes of a less denomination 



Monroe's administration. 349 

than five dollars, in payment of government dues, 
were rejected by decisive majorities. 

The fourth day of March being Sunday, the inau- 
guration ceremonies were postponed till the following 
day. The address of Mr. Monroe reiterated the sen- 
timents avowed in his first inaugural. He expatiated 
at length on the importance of fortifying the sea-coast, 
and augmenting the naval force of the country, and 
enjoined upon his countrymen the preservation of 
strict neutrality with reference to the revolutionary 
struggles in South America. Referring to the condi- 
tion of the Indian tribes, and their claims on the mag- 
naminity of the American people, he expressed him- 
self in favor of acquiring the sovereignty in the lands 
still held by them, rendering therefor an equivalent, 
to be vested in permanent funds for the support of 
civil government among them, and, for the education 
of their children, their instruction in the arts of hus- 
bandry, and their maintenance till they were able to 
provide for themselves. 

On the 3d day of Decembei', 1821, the seventeenth 
Congress assembled for its first regular session. The 
leading senators in the former Congress again re-ap- 
peared ; and, in addition, Martin Van Buren of New 
York, Samuel L. Southard of New Jersey, and 
Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, all of the republican 
party, now took their seats. Mr. Clay was not returned 
to this Congress ; but Messrs. J. W. Taylor, Sergeant, 
Mallary, Edwards, McLane, P. P. Barbour, S. Smith, 
Floyd, Mercer, Nelson, Randolph, Lowndes, and 



350 Monroe's administration. 

Hardin, were re-elected. The only prominent feder- 
alist, among the new members, was Henry W. Dwight 
of Massachusetts. Among the republicans, were 
William Eustis, of Massachusetts ; Churchill C. Cam- 
breleng, Cadwalader C. Golden, Alfred Conkling, 
William B. Rochester, and Reuben H. Walworth, of 
New York ; Caesar A. Rodney, of Delaware ; Robert 
Wright, of Maryland ; Romulus M. Saunders, of 
North Carolina ; and George McDuffie, and Joel R. 
Poinsett, of South Carolina ; 

Divisions now began to be -more than ever apparent 
in the republican ranks, and candidates for the next 
presidency were proposed by their respective friends. 
There were already six Richmonds in the field — John 
Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Wil- 
liam H. Crawford, William Lowndes, and John C. 
Calhoun. Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay were supported 
by the friends of a protective tariff" and of a general 
system of internal improvements. The federalists 
who had remained true, or were still partial to their old 
opinions in regard to matters of public policy, also pre- 
ferred Mr. Adams or Mr. Clay to the other persons 
named as candidates. The opponents of a protective 
tariff", — including in this designation those republicans 
from the northern states who were in favor of a revenue 
tariff" affording incidental protection, — and of a general 
internal improvement system, were divided in their 
preferences. The election of speaker, however, prob- 
ably turned in the main on the tariff" question. John 
W. Taylor was supported by the friends of a high 



Monroe's administration. 351 

protective system, and Philip P. Barbour united near- 
ly all the the strength of the opposing faction. The 
latter was elected after several ballotings, by a small 
majority. 

Mr. Monroe sent in his annual message on the 5th 
instant. After referring to the favorable aspect of 
the foreign relations, he stated that it had now become 
evident that Spain, could never again reduce her re- 
fractory colonies into subjection, and that the govern- 
ment of the United States would endeavor to promote 
by friendly counsel the recognition of their indepen- 
dence by the mother country. A loan of five mil- 
lions of dollars had been authorized at the previous 
session, and with this assistance the treasury had been 
able to meet all the demands upon it, and to present a 
surplus at the close of the fiscal year. Still, it was 
his firm conviction that an increase of revenue would 
be necessary, and he therefore recommended a mode- 
rate additional duty on certain articles. 

Among the important public acts passed at this ses- 
sion were those establishing a territorial government 
in Florida ; authorizing a loan of twenty-six millions 
of dollars to meet the public debt falling due ; and 
apportioning the representatives to Congress from the 
several states — the ratio adopted being forty thousand 
of federal population. The subject of a general bank- 
rupt law was again introduced, and the passage of a 
bill urged with much earnestness, by Mr. Sergeant 
of Pennsylvania. On taking the vote, however, a 
large majority appeared to be opposed to the measure 



352 Monroe's administration. 

— there being seventy-two in favor to ninety-nine 
against it. 

The tariff question underwent considerable discus- 
sion, during the course of the session, but as a majori- 
ty of the members of the House were opposed to any 
higher rate of duties than was then authorized by law, 
nothing was done in the premises. 

Mr. Pinkney, the eloquent senator from Maryland, 
died at Washington in the month of February, 1822. 
His place was supplied by the election of Samuel Smith, 
then a member of the House, to fill the vacancy. 

On the eighth of March the president sent a special 
message to Congress, recommending that, inasmuch 
as the revolted colonies of Spain in South America 
had now manifestly demonstrated their ability to main- 
tain their independence, the same should be recognized 
by the American government. On the appearance of 
the message, the Spanish minister addressed a letter 
to the Secretary of State, emphatically and solemnly 
protesting against such recognition, on the part and in 
behalf of his government. Mr. Adams replied that 
the proposed recognition was not designed to invali- 
date any right of Spain that she proved able to main- 
tain by force of arms, but only to acknowledge an ex- 
isting fact, — liable, of course, to be changed, if the 
mother country was successful in her efforts to recov- 
er her revolted colonies, — with a view of establishing 
political and commercial relations with the newly 
formed nations. 

Congress promptly adopted the suggestions of the 



Monroe's administration. 353 

Executive by an almost unanimous vote, and appro- 
priated the sum of one hundred thousand dollars to 
defray the expenses of missions to the republics whose 
independence was now recognized. 

An appropriation for certain fortifications having 
been withheld at the previous session, the president 
called the attention of Congress to the fact, on the 
26th of March, in a special message, repeating his 
formerly expressed views in regard to the importance 
of carefully fortifying the country, and enforcing 
them by many powerful arguments. 

A short time prior to the adjournment of Congress, 
a bill was passed providing for the preservation and 
repair of the Cumberland Road. As this bill assumed 
the right in Congress to adopt and execute a system 
of internal improvements, it came in conflict with the 
well known views of the President in relation to the 
constitution. He therefore returned the bill to the 
House of Representatives, on the 4th of May, 1822, 
with his objections. He also communicated to that 
body, on the same day, an ably written paper, con- 
taining an expose of his sentiments and opinions, in 
which, after showing the origin of the national and 
state governments, and their respective powers, he 
proceeded to examine whether the right of adopting 
and executing a system of internal improvement, by 
roads and canals, had been vested in the United States, 
in the following terms : 

" Before we can determine whether this power has 
been granted to the general government, it will be 



354 Monroe's administration. 

necessary to ascertain, distinctly, the nature and ex 
tent of the power requisite to make such improve 
ments. When that is done, we shall be able to decide, 
whether such power is vested in the national gov- 
ernment. 

" If the power existed, it would, it is presumed, be 
executed by a board of skilful engineers, on a view 
of the whole union, on a plan which would secure 
complete effect to all the great purposes of our con- 
stitution. It is not my intention, however, to take up 
the subject here, on this scale. I shall state a case 
for the purpose of illustration only. Let it be sup- 
posed that Congress intended to run a road from the 
city of Washington to Baltimore and to connect the 
Chesapeake bay with the Delaware, and the Delaware 
with the Raritan, by a canal ; what must be done to 
carry the project into effect 1 I make here no ques- 
tion of the existing power. I speak only of the power 
necessary for the purpose. Commissioners would be 
appointed to trace a route, in the most direct line, pay- 
ing due regard to heights, water-courses, and other 
obstacles, and to acquire the right to the ground over 
which the road and canal would pass, with sufficient 
breadth for each. This must be done by voluntary 
grants, or by purchases from individuals, or, in case 
they would not sell, or should ask an exorbitant price, 
by condemning the property and fixing its value by a 
jury of the vicinage. The next object to be attended 
to, after the road and canal are laid out and made, is 
to keep them in repair. We know that there are peo- 



Monroe's administration. 355 

pie in every community capable of committing volun- 
tary injuries ; of pulling down walls that are made to 
sustain the road ; of breaking the bridges over water- 
courses, and breaking the road itself. Some living 
near it might be disappointed that it did not pass 
through their lands, and commit these acts of violence 
and waste, from revenge, or in the hope of giving it 
that direction, though for a short time. Injuries of 
this kind have been committed, and are still complained 
of, on the road from Cumberland to the Ohio. To ac- 
complish this object, Congress should have a right to 
pass laws to punish offenders, wherever they may be 
found. Jurisdiction over the road would not be suf- 
ficient, though it were exclusive. It would seldom 
happen that the parties would be detected in the act. 
They would generally commit it in the night, and fly 
far off before the sun appeared. The power to pun- 
ish these culprits must, therefore, reach them wherev- 
er they go. The must, also, be amenable to compe- 
ten tribunals, federal or state. The pow^er must, 
likewise, extend to another object, not less essential 
or important than those already mentioned. Experi- 
ence has shown that the establishment of turnpikes, 
with gates and tolls, and persons to collect the tolls, is 
the best expedient that can be adopted to defray the 
expense of these improvements, and the repairs which 
they necessarily require. Congress must, therefore, 
have power to make such an establishnaent, and to 
support it, by such regulations, with fines and penal- 
lies, in the case of injuries, as may be competent to 



356 Monroe's administration. 

the purpose. The right must extend to all those ob- 
jects, or it will be utterly incompetent. It is possess- 
ed and exercised by the states individually, and it 
must be possessed by the United States, or the pre- 
tension must be abandoned. 

" Let it be further supposed that Congress, believing 
that they do possess the power, have passed an act 
for those purposes under which commissioners have 
been appointed, who have begun the work. They are 
met at the first farm on which they enter, by the 
owner, who forbids them to trespass bn his land. They 
offer to buy it at a fair price, or at twice or thrice its 
value. He persists in his refusal. Can they, on the 
principle recognised and acted on by all the state gov- 
ernments, that, in cases of this kind, the obstinacy 
and perverseness of an individual must yield to the 
public welfare, summon a jury of upright and discreet 
men to condemn the land, value it, and compel the 
owner to receive the amount, and to deliver it up to 
them ] I believe that very few would concur in the 
opinion that such a power exists. 

"The next object is to preserve these improvements 
from injury. The locks of the canal are broken ; the 
walls which sustained the road are pulled down ; the 
bridges are broken ; the road itself is ploughed up ; 
toll is refused to be paid ; the gates of the canal or 
turnpike are forced. The offenders are pursued, 
caught, and brought to trial. Can they be punished ? 
The question of I'ight must be decided on principle. 
The culprits will avail themselves of every barrier, 



MONROF^'S ADMINISTRATION. 357 

that may serve to screen them from punishment. 
They will plead that the law, under which they stand 
arraigned, is unconstitutional, and that question must 
be decided by the court, whether federal or state, on 
a fair investigation of the powers vested in the gen- 
eral government by the constitution. If the judges 
find that these powers have not been granted to Con- 
gress, the prisoners must be acquitted ; and, by their 
acquittal, all claim to the right to establish such a sys- 
tem is at an end. 

"I have supposed an opposition to be made to the 
right in Congress, by the owner of the land, and other 
individuals charged with breaches of statutes made 
to protect the work from injury, because it is the 
mildest form in which it can present itself. It is not, 
however, the only one. A state, also, may contest the 
right, and then the controversy assumes another char- 
acter. Government might contend against govern- 
ment ; for, to a certain extent, both the governments 
are sovereign and independent of each other, and in 
that form it is possible, though not probable, that op- 
position might be made. To each limitations are pre- 
scribed, and should a contest rise between them, 
respecting their rights, and the people sustain it with 
anything like an equal division of numbers, the worst 
consequences might ensue. 

" It may be urged that the opposition suggested by 
the owner of the land, or by the states individually, 
may be avoided by a satisfactory arrangement with 
the parties. But a suppression of opposition in that 



358 Monroe's administration. 

way, is no proof of a right in Congress, nor could it, 
if confined to that limit, remove all the impediments 
to the exercise of the power. It is not sufficient that 
Congress may, by the command and application of the 
public revenue, purchase the soil, and thus silence that 
class of individuals ; or, by the accommodation affor- 
ded to individual states, put down opposition on their 
part. Congress must be able rightfully to control all 
opposition, or they can not carry the system into ef- 
fect. Cases would inevitably occur to put the right 
to the test. The work must be preserved from injury ; 
tolls must be collected ; offenders must be punished. 
With these culprits no bargain can be made. When 
brought to trial, they must deny the validity of the 
law, and that plea being sustained, all claim to the 
right ceases. 

"If the United States possess this power, it must be, 
either because it has been specifically granted, or that 
it is incidental, and necessary to carry into effect some 
specific grant. The advocates for the power derive 
it from the following sources : 1st, the right to estab- 
lish postoffices and postroads ; 2d, to declare war ; 3d, 
to regulate commerce among the several states ; 4th, 
from the power to pay the debts and provide for the 
common defence and general welfare of the United 
States ; 5th, from the power to make all laws neces- 
sary and proper for carrying into execution all the 
powers vested by the constitution in the government 
of the United States, or in any department or officer 
thereof ; 6th, and lastly, from the power to dispose 



Monroe's administration. 359 

of, and make all needful rules and regulations respec- 
ting, the territory and other property of the United 
States. It is to be observed, that there is but little 
accord among the advocates for this power, as to the 
particular source whence it is derived. They all 
agree, however, in ascribing it to some one or more 
of those above mentioned. I will examine the ground 
of the claim in each instance. 

" The first of these grants is in the following words : 
"Congress shall have power to establish postofHces 
and postroads." What is the just import of these 
words, and the extent of the grant ? The word "es- 
tablish," is the ruling term ; "postotliccs and post- 
roads"' are the subjects on which it acts. The ques- 
tion, therefore, is what power is granted by that word ? 
The sense in which words are commonly used, is that 
in which they are to be understood in all transactions 
between public bodies and individuals. The intention 
of the parties is to prevail ; and there is no better way 
of ascertaining it, than by giving to the terms used 
their ordinary import. If we were to ask any num- 
ber of our most enlightened citizens, who had no 
connexion with public affairs, and whose minds were 
unprejudiced, what was the import of the word " estab- 
lish," and the extent of the grant which it controls, 
we do not think that there would be any difference of 
opinion among them. We are satisfied that all of 
them would answer, that a power was thereby given 
to Congress, to fix on the towns, courthouses, and 
other places, throughout our Union, at which there 



360 Monroe's administration. 

should be postoffices ; the routes by which the mails 
should be carried from one postoffice to another, so as 
to diffuse intelligence as extensively, and to make the 
institution as useful, as possible ; to fix the postage 
to be paid on every letter and packet thus carried, to 
support the establishment, and to protect the postotRces 
and mails from robbery, by punishing those who should 
commit the offence. The idea of a right to lay otT 
the roads of the United States, on a general scale of 
improvement ; to take the soil from the proprietor by 
force ; to establish turnpikes and tolls, and to punish 
offenders in the manner stated above, would never oc- 
cur to any such person. The use of the existing road, 
by the stage, mail-carrier, or postboy, in passing over 
it as others do, is all that would be thought of ; the 
jurisdiction and soil remaining to the state, with a 
right in the state, or those authorized by its legisla- 
ture, to change the road at pleasure. 

" The intention of the parties is supported by other 
proof, which ought to place it beyond all doubt. In 
the former act of government, the confederation, we 
find a grant for the same purpose, expressed in the 
following words : "The United States in Congress 
assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and 
power of establishing and regulating postoftices from 
one state to another, throughout the United States, and 
of exacting such postage on the papers passing through 
the same, as may be requisite to defray the expenses 
of said postoffice." The term "establish" was like- 
wise the ruling one in that instrument, and was evi- 



MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 361 

dently intended, and understood, to give a power 
simply and solely to fix where there should be postof- 
fices. By transferring this term from the confedera- 
tion into the constitution, it was doubtless intended 
that it should be understood in the same sense in the 
latter that it was in the former instrument, and to be 
applied alike to postoffices and postroads. In what- 
ever sense it is applied to postoffices, it must be ap- 
pHed in the same sense to postroads. But it may be 
asked, if such was the intention, why were not all the 
other terms of the grant transferred with it 1 The 
reason is obvious. The confederation being a bond of 
union between independent states, it was necessary, 
in granting the powers which were to be exercised 
over them, to be very explicit and minute in defining 
the powers granted. But the constitution, to the ex- 
tent of its powers, having incorporated the states into 
one government, like the government of the states, 
individually, fewer words in defining the powers 
granted by it, were not only adequate, but, perhaps, 
better adapted to the purpose. We find that brevity 
is a characteristic of the instrument. Had it been 
intended to convey a more enlarged power in the con- 
stitution than had been granted in the confederation, 
surely the same controlling term would not have been 
used ; or other words would have been added, to show 
such intention, and to mark the extent to which the 
power should be carried. It is a liberal construction 
of the powers granted in the constitution, by this 
term, to include in it all the powers that were granted 



362 Monroe's administration. 

in the confederation, by terms which specifically de- 
fined and (as was supposed) extended their limits. It 
would be absurd to say, that, by omitting from the 
constitution any portion of the phraseology which was 
deemed important in the confederation, the import of 
the term was enlarged, and, with it, the powers of 
the constitution, in a proportional degree, beyond 
what they were in the confederation. The right to 
exact postage and to protect the postoffices and mails 
from robbery, by punishing the offenders, may fairly 
be considered as incidents to the grant, since, without 
it, the object of the grant might be defeated. What- 
ever is absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of 
the object of the grant, though not specified, may 
fairly be considered as included in it. Beyond this, 
the doctrine of incidental power can not be carried. 

If we go back to the origin of our settlements and 
institutions, and trace their progress down to the revo- 
lution, we shall see that it was in this sense, and none 
other, that the power was exercised by all our colonial 
governments. Postoffices were made for the country, 
and not the country for them. They are the offspring 
of improvement ; they never go before it. Settle- 
ments are first made ; after which the progress is uni- 
form and simple, extending to objects in regular or- 
der, most necessary to the comfort of man — schools, 
places of worship, courthouses, and markets ; postof- 
fices follow. Roads may, indeed, be said to be coeval 
with settlements. They lead to all the places men 
tioned, and to every other which the various andcom- 
plicatod interests of society require. 



* Monroe's administration. 363 

" It is believed that not one example can be given, 
from the first settlement of our country to the adoption 
of this constitution, of a post office being established 
without a view to existing roads ; or of a single road 
having been made by pavement, turnpike, &c., for 
the sole purpose of accommodating a post office. 
Such, too, is the uniform progress of all societies. In 
granting, then, this power to the United States, it was 
undoubtedly intended by the framers and ratifiers of 
the constitution, to convey it in the sense and extent 
only in M^hich it had been understood and exercised 
by the previous authorities of the country. 

"This conclusion is confirmed by the object of the 
grant and the manner of its execution. The object is 
the transportation of the mail throughout the United 
States, which may be done on horseback, and was so 
done until lately, since the establishment of stages. 
Between the great towns, and in other places where 
the population is dense, stages are preferred, because 
they afford an additional opportunity to make a profit 
from passengers. But where the population is sparse, 
and on crossroads, it is generally carried on horse- 
back. Unconnected with passengers and other ob- 
jects, it can not be doubted that the mail itself may 
be carried in every part of the Union, with nearly as 
much economy and greater despatch, on horseback, 
than in a stage ; and in many parts with much greater. 
In every part of the Union in which stages can be 
preferred, the roads are sufficiently good, provided 

those which serve for every other purpose will accom- 

16 



364 Monroe's administration. 

modate them. In every other part, where horses 
alone are used, if other people pass them on horse- 
back, surely the mail-carrier can. For an object so 
simple and so easy in the execution, it would doubtless 
excite surprise, if it should be thought proper to ap- 
point commissioners to lay off the country on a great 
scheme of improvement, with the power to shorten 
distances, reduce heights, level mountains, and pave 
surfaces. 

** If the United States possessed the power contended 
for under this grant, might they not, in adopting the 
roads of the individual states for the carriage of the 
mail, as has been done, assume jurisdiction over them, 
and preclude a right to interfere with or alter them 1 
Might they not estabhsh turnpikes, and exercise all 
the other acts of sovereignty, above stated, over such 
roads, necessary to protect them from injury, and 
defray the expense of repairing them 1 Surely, if the 
right exists, these consequences necessarily followed, 
as soon as the road was estabhshed. The absurdity 
of such a pretension must be apparent to all who 
examine it. In this way a large portion of the terri- 
tory of every state might be taken from it, for there 
is scarcely a road in any state which will not be used 
for the transportation of the mail. A new field for 
legislation and internal improvement would thus be 
opened. 

" From this view of the subject, I think that we may 
fairly conclude, that the right to adopt and execute a 
system of internal improvement, or any part of it, 



Monroe's administration. 365 

has not been granted to Congress under the power to 
establish postoffices and postroads ; that the common 
roads of the country only were contemplated by that 
grant, and are fully competent to all its purposes. 

" The next object of inquiry is, whether the right 
to declare war includes the right to adopt and execute 
this system of improvement 1 The objections to it 
are, I presume, not less conclusive than those which 
are applicable to the grant which we have just exa- 
mined. 

" Under the last-mentioned grant, a claim has been 
set up to as much of that system as relates to roads. 
Under this, it extends alike to roads and canals. 

" We must examine this grant by the same rules of 
construction that were applied to the preceding one. 
The object was to take this power from the individual 
states, and to vest it in the general government. This 
has been done in clear and explicit terms — first, by 
granting the power to Congress, and, secondly, by 
prohibiting the exercise of it by the states. Congress 
shall have a right to declare war. This is the language 
of the grant. If the right to adopt and execute this 
system of improvement is included in it, it must be by 
way of incident only, since there is nothing in the grant 
itself which bears any relation to roads and canals. 
The following considerations, it is presumed, proved, 
incontestably, that this power has not been granted 
in that or any other manner. 

"The United States are exposed to invasion through 
the whole extent of their Atlantic coast, by any Eu- 



366 monrok's administration. 

rope an power with whom we might be engaged in 
war ; on the northern and northwestern frontier, on 
the side of Canada, by Great Britain, and on the 
southern by Spain, or any power in alUance with her. 
If internal improvements are to be carried to the full 
extent to which they may be useful for military pur- 
poses, the power, as it exists, must apply to all the 
roads of the Union, there being no limitation to it. 
Wherever such improvements may faciUtate the 
march of troops, the transportation of cannon, or 
otherwise aid the operations, or mitigate the calamities 
of war along the coast, or in any part of the interior, 
they would be useful for military purposes, and might 
therefore be made. The power following as an inci- 
dent to another power can be measured, as to its ex- 
tent, by reference only to the obvious extent of the 
power to which it is incidental. So great a scope 
was, it is believed, never given to incidental power. 

" If it had been intended that the right to declare 
war should include all the powers necessary to main- 
tain war, it would follow that nothing would have 
been done to impair the right, or to restrain Congress 
from the exercise of any power which the exigencies 
of war might require. The nature and extent of this 
exigency would mark the extent of the power granted, 
which should always be construed liberally, so as to 
be adequate to the end. A right to raise money by 
taxes, duties, excises, and by loan ; to raise and sup- 
port armies and a navy ; to provide for calling forth, 
arming, disciplining, and governing the militia, when 



Monroe's administration. 367 

in the service of tlie United States ; establishing forti- 
fications, and governing the troops stationed in them, 
independently of the state authorities, and to perform 
many other acts, is indispensable to the maintenance 
of war. No war with any great power can be pro- 
secuted with success without the command of the 
resources of the Union in all these respects. These 
powers, then, would, of necessity, and by common 
consent, have fallen within the right to declare war, 
had it been intended to convey, by way of incident to 
that right, the necessary powers to maintain war. 
But these powers have all been granted specifically, 
with many others, in great detail, which experience 
had shown were necessary for the purposes of war. 
By specifically granting, then, these powers, it is 
manifest that every power was thus granted which it 
was intended to grant, for military purposes ; and that 
it was also intended that no important power should 
be included in this grant by way of incident, however 
useful it might be for some of the purposes of the 
grant. 

"By the sixteenth of the enumerated powers, arti- 
cle i, sect. 8, Congress are authorized to exercise 
exclusive legislation in all cases whatever over such 
district as may, by cession of particular states, and 
the acceptance of Congress, not exceeding ten miles 
square, become the seat of the government of the 
United States ; and to exercise hke authority over all 
places purchased by the consent of the legislature of 
the state in which the same shall be, for the erection 



368 Monroe's administration. 

of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other 
useful buildings. If any doubt existed on a view of 
the other parts of the constitution respecting the deci- 
sion which ought to be formed on the question under 
consideration, I should suppose that this clause would 
completely remove it. It has been shown, after the 
most Uberal construction of all the enumerated powers 
of the general government, that the territory within 
the limits of the respective states belonged to them ; 
that the United States had no right, under the powers 
granted to them, with the exception specified in this 
grant, to any the smallest portion of territory within 
a state, all those powers operating on a different prin- 
ciple, and having their full effect without impairing, 
in the slightest degree, this right in the states ; that 
those powers were, in every instance, means to ends, 
which, being accomplished, left the subject, that is, 
the property, in which light only land could be regard- 
ed, where it was before — under the jurisdiction, and 
subject to the laws, of the state governments. 

"The second number of the clause, which is appli- 
cable to military and naval purposes alone, claims 
particular attention here. It fully confirms the view 
taken of the other enumerated powers ; for, had it 
been intended to include in the right to declare war, 
by way of incident, any right of jurisdiction or legis- 
lation over territory within a state, it would have 
been done as to fortifications, magazines, arsenals, 
dockyards, and other needful buildings. By specifi- 
cally granting the right, as to such small portions of 



Monroe's administration. 369 

territory as might be necessary for these purposes, 
and on certain conditions, minutely and well defined, 
it is manifest that it was not intended to grant it, as 
to any other portion, on any condition, for any pur- 
pose, or in any manner whatsoever. 

"It may be said that, although the authority to 
exercise exclusive legislation in certain cases, within 
the states, with their consent, may be considered as a 
prohibition to Congress to exercise like exclusive legis- 
lation in any other case, although their consent should 
be granted, it does not prohibit the exercise of such 
jurisdiction or power, within a state, as would be 
competent to all the purposes of internal improvement. 
I can conceive no ground on which the idea of such 
a power over any part of the territory of a state can 
be inferred from the power to declare war. There 
never can be an occasion for jurisdiction for military 
purposes, except in fortifications, dockyards, and the 
like places. If the soldiers are in the field, or are 
quartered in garrisons without the fortifications, the 
civil authority must prevail where they are. The 
government of the troops by martial law is not affect- 
ed by it. In war, when the forces are increased, and 
the movement is on a greater scale, consequences fol- 
low which are inseparable from the exigencies of the 
state. More freedom of action, and a wider rang-e of 
power, in the military commanders, to be exercised 
on their own responsibility, may be necessary to the 
public safety ; but, even here, the civil authority of 
the state never ceases to operate. It is also exclusive 
for all civil purposes. 



370 momroe's administration. 

" Whether any power, short of that stated, would 
be adequate to the purposes of mternal improvement, 
is denied. In the case of territory, one government 
must prevail for all the purposes intended by the 
grant. The jurisdiction of the United States might 
be modified in such manner as to admit that of the 
state in all cases and for all purposes not necessary to 
the execution of the proposed power. But the right 
of the general government must be complete for all 
the purposes above stated. It must extend to the 
seizure and condemnation of the property, if neces- 
sary ; to the punishment of offenders for injuries to 
the roads and canals ; to the establishment and enforce- 
ment of tolls, &c., &c. It must be a complete right, 
to the extent above stated, or it will be of no avail. 
That right does not exist. 

" The reasons which operate in favor of the right 
of exclusive legislation in forts, dockyards, &c., do not 
apply to any other places. The safety of such works, 
and of the cities which they are intended to defend, 
and even of whole communities, may sometimes de- 
pend on it. If spies are admitted within them in time 
of war, they might communicate intelligence to the 
enemy which might be fatal. All nations surround 
such works with high walls, and keep their gates shut. 
Even here, however, three important conditions are 
indispensable to such exclusive legislation : First. The 
ground must be requisite for, and be applied to, those 
purposes. Second. It must be purchased. Third. It 
must be purchased by the consent of the state in 



Monroe's administration. 371 

which it may be. When we find that so much care 
has been taken to protect the sovereignty of the states 
over the territory within their respective limits, admit- 
ting that of the United States over such small porfions 
and for such special and important purposes only, the 
conclusion is irresistible, not only that the power 
necessary for internal improvements has not been 
granted, but that it has been clearly prohibited. 

"I come next to the right to regulate commerce, 
the third source from whence the right to make inter- 
nal improvements is claimed. It is expressed in the 
following words : " Congress shall have power to 
regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among 
the several states, and with the Indian tribes." The 
reasoning applicable to the preceding claims is equally 
so to this. The mischief complained of was, that this 
power could not be exercised with advantage by the 
individual states, and the object was to transfer it to 
the United States. The sense in which the power 
was understood and exercised by the states, was 
doubtless that in which it was transferred to the United 
States. The policy was the same as to three branches 
of this grant, and it is scarcely possible to separate 
the first two from each of the other, in any view 
which may be taken of the subject. The last, relating 
to the Indian tribes, is of a nature distinct from the 
others, for reasons too well known to require expla- 
nation. Commerce between independent powers or 
communities is universally regulated by duties and 

imposts. It was so regulated by the states before the 

16* 



372 Monroe's administration. 

adoption of this constitution, equally in respect to each 
other and to foreign powers. The goods and vessels 
employed in the trade are the only subjects of regula- 
tion. It can act on none other. A power, then, to 
impose such duties and imposts, in regard to foreign 
nations, and to prevent any on the trade between the 
states, was the only power granted. 

''If we recur to the causes which produced the 
adoption of this constitution, we shall find that injuries, 
resulting from the regulation of trade by the states, 
respectively, and the advantages anticipated from the 
transfer of the power to Congress, were among those 
which had the most weight. Instead of acting as a 
nation in regard to foreign powers, the states, individ- 
ually, had commenced a system of restraint on each 
other, whereby the interests of foreign powers were 
promoted at their expense. If one state imposed high 
duties on the goods or vessels of a foreign power, to 
countervail the regulations of such power, the next 
adjoining states imposed lower duties, to invite those 
articles into their ports, that they might be transferred 
thence into the other states, securing the duties to 
themselves. This contracted policy in some of the 
states was soon counteracted by others. Restraints 
were immediately laid on such commerce by the suf- 
fering states, and thus had grown up a state of affairs, 
disorderly and unnatural, the tendency of which was 
to destroy the Union itself, and with it, all hope of 
realizing those blessings which we had anticipated 
from the glorious revolution which had been so re- 



Monroe's ad.mtmstration". 373 

cently achieved. From this deplorable dilemma, or 
rather certain ruin, we were happily rescued by the 
adoption of the constitution. 

" Among the first and most important effects of this 
great revolution, was the complete abolition of this 
pernicious policy. The states were brought together 
by the constitution, as to commerce, into one commu- 
nity, equally, in regard to foreign nations and each 
other. The regulations that were adopted, regarded 
us, in both respects, as one people. The duties and 
imposts that were laid on the vessels and merchandise 
of foreign nations, were all uniform throughout the 
United States, and, in the intercourse between the 
states themselves, no duties of any kind were imposed, 
other than between different ports and counties with- 
in the same state. 

"This view is supported by a series of measures, all 
of a marked character, preceding the adoption of the 
constitution. As early as the year 1781, Congress 
recommended it to the states to vest in the United 
States a power to levy a duty of five per cent on all 
goods imported from foreign countries into the United 
States, for the term of fifteen years. In 1783, this 
recommendation, with alterations as to the kind of 
duties, and an extension of this term to twenty-fiv^e 
years, was repeated, and inore earnestly urged. In 
1784, it was recommended to the states to authorize 
Congress to prohibit, under certain modifications, the 
importation of goods from foreign powers into the 
United States for fifteen years. In 1785, the consid- 



374 Monroe's administration. 

eration of the subject was resumed, and a proposition 
presented in a new form, with an address to the states, 
explaining fully. the principles on which a grant of the 
power to regulate trade was deemed indispensable. 
In 1786, a meeting took place at Annapolis, of dele- 
gates from several of the states, on this subject, and, 
on their report, a convention was formed at Philadel- 
phia, the ensuing year, from all the states, to whose 
deliberations we are indebted for the present consti- 
tution. 

" In none of these measures was the subject of inter- 
nal improvement mentioned, or even glanced at. 
Those of 1784, '5, '6, and '7, leading, step by step, to 
the adoption of the constitution, had in view, only, the 
obtaining of a power to enable Congress to regulate 
trade with foreign powers. It is manifest that the 
regulation of trade with the several states, was alto- 
gether a secondary object, suggested by and adopted 
in connexion with the other. If the power necessary 
to this system of improvement is included under either 
branch of this grant, I should suppose that it was the 
first, rather than the second. The pretension to it, 
however, under that branch, has never been set up. 
In support of the claim, under the second, no reason 
has been assigned which appears to have the least 
weight. 

"The fourth claim is founded on the right of Con- 
gress to "pay the debts and provide for the common 
defence and general welfare" of the United States. 
This claim has less reason on its side than either of 



Monroe's administration. 375 

those which we have already examined. The power 
of which this forms a part is expressed in the follow- 
ing words : "Congress shall have power to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises ; to pay the 
debts and provide for the common defence and gene- 
ral welfare of the United States ; but all duties, im- 
posts, and excises, shall be uniform throughout the 
United States." 

" That the second part of this grant gives a right to 
appropriate the public money, and nothing more, is 
evident from the following considerations : First, if 
the right of appropriation is not given by this clause, 
it is not given at all, there being no other grant in the 
constitution which gives it directly, or which has any 
bearing on the subject, even by implication, except the 
two following : first, the prohibition, which is con- 
tained in the eleventh of the enumerated powers, not 
to appropriate money for the support of armies for a 
longer term than two years ; and, secondly, the decla- 
ration in the sixth member or clause of the ninth sec- 
tion of the first article, that no money shall be drawn 
from the treasury, but in consequence of appropria- 
tions made by law. Secondly, this part of the grant 
has none of the characteristics of a distinct and origi- 
nal power. It is manifestly incidental to the great 
objects of the first branch of the grant, which author 
izes Congress to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, 
and excises ; a power of vast extent, not granted by 
the confederation, the grant of which formed one of 
the principal inducements to the adoption of this con- 



376 Monroe's administration. 

stitution. If both parts of the grant are taken togeth- 
er, as they must be, for the one follows immediate!}^ 
after the other in the same sentence, it seems to be 
impossible to give to the latter any other construction 
than that contended for. Congress shall have power 
to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. 
For what purpose 1 To pay the debts and provide 
for the common defence and general welfare of the 
United States — an arrangement and phraseology 
which clearly show that the latter part of the clause 
was intended to enumerate the purposes to W'hich the 
money thus raised might be appropriated. Thirdly, 
if this is not the real object and fair construction of 
the second part of this grant, it follows either that it 
has no import or operation whatever, or one of much 
greater extent than the first part. This presumption 
is evidently groundless in both instances ; in the first, 
because no part of the constitution can be considered 
as useless ; no sentence or clause in it without a mean- 
ing. In the second, because such a construction as 
made the second part of the clause an original grant, 
embracing the same object with the first, but with 
much greater power than it, would be in the highest 
degree absurd. The order generally observed in 
grants, an order founded in common sense, since it 
promotes a clear understanding of their import, is to 
grant the power intended to be conveyed in the most 
full and explicit manner, and then to explain or qualify 
it, if explanation or qualification should be necessary. 
This order has, it is believed, been invariably observed, 



Monroe's administration. 377 

in all the grants contained in the constitution. In the 
second, because, if the clause in question is not con- 
strued merely as an authority to appropriate the public 
money, it must be obvious that it conveys a power of 
indefinite and unlimited extent ; that there would have 
been no use for the special powers to raise and sup- 
port armies and a navy ; to regulate commerce ; to 
call forth the militia ; or even to lay and collect taxes, 
duties, imposts, and excises. An unqualified power 
to pay the debts and provide for the common defence 
and general welfare, as the second part of this clause 
would be, if considered as a distinct and separate grant, 
would extend to every object in which the public could 
be interested. A power to provide for the common 
defence would give to Congress the command of the 
whole force, and of all the resources of the Union ; 
but a right to provide for the general welfare would 
go much further. It would, in effect, break down all 
the barriers between the states and the general gov- 
ernment, and consolidate the whole under the latter. 

" The powers specifically granted to Congress, are 
what are called the enumerated powers, and are num- 
bered in the order in which they stand, among which 
that contained in the first clause holds the first place in 
point of importance. If the power created by the 
latter part of the clause is considered an original grant, 
unconnected with, and independent of, the first, as in 
that case it must be, then the first part is entirely 
done away, as are all the other grants in the constitu- 
tion, being completely absorbed in the transcendant 



378 Monroe's administration. 

power granted in the latter part. But if the clause be 
construed in the sense contended for, then every part 
has an important meaning and effect ; not a line, a 
word, in it is superfluous. A power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, subjects to the call 
of Congress every branch of the public revenue, in- 
ternal and external ; and the addition, to pay the debts 
and provide for the common defence and general wel- 
fare, gives the right of applying the money raised, 
that is, of appropriating it to the purposes specified, 
according to a proper construction of the terms. 
Hence it follows, that it is the first part of the clause 
only, which gives a power which affects in any man- 
ner the power remaining to the states ; as the power 
to raise money from the people, whether it be by taxes, 
duties, imposts, or excises, though concurrent in the 
states, as to taxes and excises, must necessarily do. 
But the use or application of the money, after it is 
raised, is a power altogether of a different character. 
It imposed no burden on the people, nor can it act on 
them in a sense to take power from the states, or in 
any sense in which power can be controverted, or be- 
come a question between the two governments. The 
application of money, raised under a lawful power, is 
a right or grant which may be abused. It may be 
applied partially among the states, or to improper 
purposes in our foreign and domestic concerns ; but, 
still, it is a power not felt in the sense of other powers, 
since the only complaint which any state can make of 
such partiality and abuse is, that some other state or 



Monroe's administration. 379 

states have obtained greater benefit from the applica- 
tion, than by a just rule of apportionment they were 
entitled to. The right of appropriation is, therefore, 
from its nature, secondary and incidental to the right 
of raising money, and it was proper to place it in the 
same grant and same clause with that right. By 
finding them, then, in that order, we see a new proof 
of the sense in which the grant was made, correspond- 
ing with the view herein taken of it. 

" The last part of this grant, which provides that 
all duties, imposts, and excises, shall be uniform 
throughout the United States, furn shes another strong 
proof that it was not intended that the second part 
should constitute a distinct grant, in the sense above 
stated, or convey any other right than that of appro- 
priation. This provision operates exclusively on the 
power granted in the first part of the clause. It re- 
cites three branches of that power — duties, imposts, 
and excises— those only on which it could operate ; 
the rule by which the fourth, that is, taxes, should be 
laid, being already provided for in another part of the 
constitution. The object of this provision is, to secure 
a just equality among the states in the exercise of that 
power by Congress. By placing it after both the 
grants, that is, after that to raise and that to appro- 
priate the public money, and making it apply to the 
first only, shows that it was not intended that the 
power granted in the second should be paramount to, 
and destroy that granted in the first. It shows, also, 
that no such formidable power as that suggested had 



380 Monroe's administration. 

been granted in the second, or any power, against the 
abuse of which it was thought necessary specially to 
provide. Surely, if it was deemed proper to guard a 
specific power of limited extent and well-known im- 
port, against injustice and abuse, it would have been 
much more so to have guarded against the abuse of a 
power of such vast extent, and so indefinite, as would 
have been granted by the second part of the clause, 
if considered as a distinct and original grant. 

" With this construction, all the other enumerated 
grants, and indeed all the grants of power, contained 
in the constitution, h-ave their full operation and effect. 
They all stand well together, fulfilling the great pur- 
poses intended by them. Under it we behold a great 
scheme, consistent in all its parts, a government insti- 
tuted for national purposes, vested with adequate 
powers for those purposes, commencing with the most 
important of all, that of revenue, and proceeding, in 
regular order, to the others, with which it was deemed 
proper to endow it, all too drawn with the utmost 
circumspection and care. How much more consistent 
is this construction, with the great objects of the 
institution, and with the high character of the enlight- 
ened and patriotic citizens who framed it, as well as 
of those who ratified it, than one which subverts every 
sound principle and rule of construction and throws 
everything into confusion. 

"I have dwelt thus long on this part of the subject, 
from an earnest desire to fix, in a clear and satisfac- 
,tory manner, the import of the second part of this 



Monroe's administration. 381 

grant, well knowing, from the generality of the terms 
used, their tendency to lead into error. I indulge a 
strong hope that the view herein presented will not 
be without effect, but will tend to satisfy the unpre- 
judiced and impartial that nothing more was granted, 
by that part, than a power to appropriate the public 
money raised under the other part. To what extent 
that power may be carried- will be the next object of 
inquiry. 

" It is contended, on the one side, that, as the 
national government is a government of limited pow- 
ers, it has no right to expend money, except in the 
performance of acts authorized by the other specific 
grants, according to a strict construction of their 
powers ; that this grant, in neither of its branches, 
gives to Congress discretionary power of any kind, 
but is a mere instrument, in its hands, to carry into 
effect the powers contained in the other grants. To 
this construction 1 was inclined in the more early 
stage of our government ; but, on further reflection 
and observation, my mind has undergone a change, 
for reasons which I will frankly unfold. 

** The grant consists, as heretofore observed, of a 
twofold power ; the first to raise, and the second to 
appropriate, the public money, and the terms used in 
both instances are general and unqualified. Each 
branch was obvioUsly drawn with a view to the other, 
and the import of each tends to illustrate that of the 
other. The grant to raise money gives a power over 
every subject from which revenue may be drawn, and 



382 Monroe's administration. 

is made in the same manner with the grants to declare 
war, to raise and support armies and a navy, to regu- 
late commerce, to establish postoffices and postroads, 
and with all the other specific grants to the general 
government. In the discharge of the powers contained 
in any of these grants, these is no other check than 
that which is to be found in the great principles of our 
system, the responsibihty of the representative to his 
constituents. If war, for example, is necessary, and 
Congress declare it for good cause, their constituents 
will support them in it. A like support will be given 
them for the faithful discharge of their duties under 
any and every other power vested in the United 
States. It affords to the friends of our free govern- 
ments the most heartfelt consolation to know, and 
from the best evidence, our own experience, that, in 
great emergencies, the boldest measures, such as form 
the strongest appeals to the virtue and patriotism of 
the people, are sure to obtain their most decided 
approbation. But should the representative act cor- 
ruptly, and betray his trust, or otherwise prove that 
he was unworthy of the confidence of his constituents, 
he would be equally sure to lose it, and to be removed 
and otherwise censured, according to his deserts. The 
power to raise money by taxes, duties, imposts, and 
excises, is alike unqualified, nor do I see any check on 
the exercise of it, other than that which applies to the 
other powers above recited, the responsibility of the 
representative to his constituents. Congress know 
the extent of the public engagements, and the sums 



Monroe's administration. 383 

necessary to meet them ; they know how much may 
be derived from each branch of revenue, without press- 
ing it too far ; and, paying due regard to the interests 
of the people, they hkewise know which branch ought 
to be resorted to, in the first instance. From the 
commencement of the government, two branches of 
this power, duties and imposts, have been in constant 
operation, the revenue from which has supported tlie 
government in its various branches, and met its other 
ordinary engagements. In great emergencies, the 
other two, taxes and excises, have hkewise been re- 
sorted to, and neither was the right nor the pohcy 
ever called in question. 

"If we look to the second branch of this power, that 
which authorizes the appropriation of the money thus 
raised, we find that it is not less general and unquali- 
fied than the power to raise it. More comprehensive 
terms than to " pay the debts and provide for the com- 
mon defence and general welfare," could not have 
been used. So intimately connected with, and depen- 
dent on, each other, are these two branches of power, 
that, had either been limited, the Hmitation would have 
had the like effect on the other. Had the power to 
raise money been conditional, or restricted to special 
purposes, the appropriation must have corresponded 
with it, for none but the money raised could be appro- 
priated, nor could it be appropriated to other purposes 
than those which were permitted. On the other hand, 
if the right of appropriation had been restricted to 
certain purposes, it would be useless and improper to 



384 Monroe's administration. 

raise more than would be adequate to those purposes. 
It may fairly be inferred that these restraints or checks 
have been carefully and intentionally avoided. The 
power, in each branch, is alike broad and unqualified, 
and each is drawn with peculiar fitness to the other ; 
the latter requiring terms of great extent and force 
to accommodate the former, which have been adopted, 
and both placed in the same clause and sentence. 
Can it be presumed that all these circumstances were 
so nicely adjusted by mere accident 1 Is it not more 
just to conclude that they were the result of due de- 
liberation and design] Had it been intended that 
Congress should be restricted in the appropriation of 
the public money to such expenditures as were author- 
ized by a rigid construction of the other specific grants, 
how easy would it have been to have provided for it 
by a declaration to that effect. The omission of such 
declaration is, therefore, an additional proof that it 
was not intended that the grant should be so construed. 
"It was evidently impossible to have subjected this 
grant, in either branch, to such restriction, without 
exposing the government to very serious embarrass- 
ment. How carry it into effect'? If the grant had 
been made in any degree dependent upon the states, 
the government would have experienced the fate of 
the confederation. Like it, i.t would have withered and 
soon perished. Had the supreme court been author- 
ized, or should any other tribunal, distinct from the 
government, be authorized, to interpose its veto, and 
to say that more money had been raised under either 



aionroe's administration. 385 

branch of this power, that is, by taxes, duties, imposts, 
or excises, than was necessary ; that such a tax or 
duty was useless ; that the appropriation to this or 
that purpose was unconstitutional ; the movement 
might have been suspended, and the whole system 
disorganized. It was impossible to have created a 
power within the government, or any other power 
distinct from Congress and the executive, which 
should control the movement of the government in 
this respect, and not destroy it. Had it been declared, 
by a clause in the constitution, that the expenditures 
under this grant should be restricted to the construc- 
tion which might be given of the other grants, such 
restraint, though the most innocent, could not have 
failed to have had an injurious effect on the vital prin- 
ciples of the government, and often on its most impor- 
tant measures. Those who might wish to defeat a 
measure proposed, might construe the power relied 
on in support of it in a narrow and contracted man- 
ner, and in that way fix a precedent inconsistent with 
the true import of the grant. At other times, those 
who favored a measure, might give to the power 
relied on a forced or strained construction, and suc- 
ceeding in the object, fix a precedent in the opposite 
extreme. Thus it is manifest that, if the right of 
appropriation be confined to that limit, measures may 
oftentimes be carried, or defeated, by considerations 
and motives altogether independent of, and uncon- 
nected with, their merits and the several powers of 
Congress, receive constructions equally inconsistent 



386 Monroe's administration. 

with their true import. No such declaration, how- 
ever, has been made, and from the fair import of the 
grant, and, indeed, its positive terms, the inference 
that such was intended seems to be precluded. 

" Many considerations of great weight operate in 
favor of this construction, while I do not perceive any 
serious objection to it. If it be established, it follows 
that the words, " to provide for the common defence 
and general welfare," have a definite, safe, and useful 
meaning. The idea of their forming an original grant, 
with unlimited power, superseding every other grant, 
is abandoned. They will be considered, simply, as 
conveying a right of appropriation ; a right indispen- 
able to that of raising a revenue, and necessary to 
expenditures under every grant. By it, as already 
observed, no new power will be taken from the states, 
the money to be appropriated being raised under a 
power already granted to Congress. By it, too, the 
motive for giving a forced or strained construction to 
any of the other specific grants will, in most instances, 
be diminished, and, in many, utterly destroyed. The 
importance of this consideration can not be too highly 
estimated, since, in addition to the examples already 
given, it ought particularly to be recollected, that, to 
whatever extent any specific power may be carried, 
the right of jurisdiction goes with it, pursuing it 
through all its incidents. The very important agency 
which this grant has in carrying into effect every 
other grant, is a strong argument in favor of the con- 
struction contended for. All the other grants are 



Monroe's administration. 387 

limited by the nature of tlie offices which they have 
severally to perform, each conveying a power to do 
a certain thing, and that only, whereas this is coexten- 
sive with the great scheme of the government itself 
It is the lever which raises and puts the whole ma- 
chinerv in motion, and continues the movement. 
Should either of the other grants fail, in consequence 
of any condition or limitation attached to it, or mis- 
construction of its powers, much injury might follow, 
but still it would be the failure of one branch of power, 
of one item in the system only. All the others might 
move on. But should the right to raise and appro- 
priate the public money be improperly restricted, the 
whole system might be sensibly affected, if not dis- 
organized. Each of the other grants is limited by the 
nature of the grant itself. This, by the nature of the 
government only. Hence it became necessary that, 
like the power tp declare war, this power should be 
commensurate with the great scheme of the govern- 
ment, and with all its purposes. 

"If, then, the right to raise and appropriate the 
f. ^^'c money is not restricted to the expenditures 
under the other specific grants, according to a strict 
construction of their powers respectively, is there no 
limitation to it 1 Have Congress a right to raise and 
appropriate the pubhc money to any and to every 
purpose, according to their will and pleasure 1 They 
certainly have not. The government of the United 
States is a limited government, instituted for great 

national purposes, and for those only. Other interests 

17 



388 Monroe's administration. 

are committed to the states, whose duty it is to pro- 
vide for them. Each government should look to the 
great and essential purposes for which it was insti- 
tuted, and confine itself to those purposes. A state 
government will rarely, if ever, apply money to 
national purposes, without making it a charge to the 
nation. The people of the state would not permit it. 
Nor will Congress be apt to apply money in aid of 
the state administrations, for purposes strictly local, 
in which the nation at large has no interest, although 
the states should desire it. The people of the other 
states would condemn it. They would declare that 
Congress had no right to tax them for such a purpose, 
and dismiss, at the next election, such of their repre- 
sentatives as had voted for the measure, especially if 
it should be severely felt. I do not think that in oiHces 
of this kind there is much danger of the two govern- 
ments mistaking their interests or their duties. I 
rather expect that they would soon have a clear and 
distinct understanding of them, and move on in great 
harmony. 

"Good roads and canals will promote many very 
important national purposes. They will facilitate the 
operations of war, the movements of troops, the trans- 
portation of cannon, of provisions, and every warlike 
store, much to our advantage and to the disadvantage 
of the enemy in time of war. Good roads will facili- 
tate the transportation of the mail, and thereby pro- 
mote the purposes of commerce and political intelli- 
gence among the people. They will, by being properly 



MONROES ADMINISTRATION. 389 

directed to these objects, enhance the value of our 
vacant lands, a treasure of vast resource to the nation. 
To the appropriation of the pubUc money to improve- 
ments, having these objects in view, and carried to a 
certain extent, I do not see any well-founded constitu- 
tional objection. 

"In regard to our foreign concerns, provided they 
are managed with integrity and ability, great liberality 
is allowable in the application of the public money. 
In the management of these concerns, no state inter- 
ests can be affected, no state rights violated. The 
complete and exclusive control over them is vested in 
Congress. The power to form treaties of alliance 
and commerce with foreign powers ; to regulate by 
law our commerce with them ; to determine on peace 
or war; to raise armies and a navy; to call forth the 
militia and direct their operations ; belongs to the 
general government. These great powers, embracing 
the whole scope of our foreign relations, being granted, 
on what principle can it be said that the minor are 
withheld? Are not the latter clearly and evidently 
comprised in the former? Nations are sometimes 
called upon to perform to each other acts of humanity 
and kindness, of which we see so many illustrious 
examples between individuals in private hfe. Great 
calamities make appeals to the benevolence of man- 
kind, which ought not to be resisted. Good offices in 
such emergencies exalt the character of the party 
rendering them. By exciting grateful feelings, they 
soften the intercourse between nations, and tend to 



390 Monroe's administration. 

prevent war. Surely, if the United States have a 
right to make war, they have a right to prevent it. 
How was it possible to grant to Congress a power for 
such minor purposes, other than in general terms, 
comprising it within the scope and policy of that 
which conveyed it for the greater ? 

"The right of appropriation is nothing more than a 
right to apply the public money to this or that pur- 
pose. It has no incidental power, nor does it draw 
after it any consequences of that kind. All that Con- 
gress could do under it, in the case of internal im- 
provements, would be to appropriate the money neces- 
sary to make them. For every act requiring legisla- 
tive sanction or support the state authority must be 
relied on. The condemnation of the laud, if the pro- 
prietors should refuse to sell it, the establishment of 
turnpikes and tolls, and the protection of the work 
when finished, must be done by the state. To these 
purposes the powers of the general government are 
believed to be utterly incompetent. 

"To the objection that the United States have no 
power, in any instance, which is not complete to all 
the purposes to which it may be made instrumental, 
and, in consequence, that they have no right to appro- 
priate any portion of the public money to internal 
improvements, because they have not the right of 
sovereignty and jurisdiction over them when made, a 
full answer has, it is presumed, been already given. 
It may, however, be proper to add, that, if this objec- 
tion was well founded, it would not be confined to the 



MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 391 

simple case of internal improvements, but would apply- 
to others of high importance. Congress have a right 
to regulate commerce. To give effect to this power, 
it becomes necessary to estabhsh custom-houses in 
every state along the coast, and in many parts of the 
interior. The vast amount of goods imported, and 
the duties to be performed to accommodate the mer- 
chants and secure the revenue, make it necessary 
that spacious buildings should be erected, especially 
in the great towns, for their reception. This, it is 
manifest, could best be performed under the direction 
of the general government. Have Congress the right 
to seize the property of individuals, if they should 
refuse to sell it, in quarters best adapted to the pur- 
pose, to have it valued, and to take it at the valuation ] 
Have they a right to exercise jurisdiction within those 
buildings ] Neither of these claims has ever been set 
up, nor could it, as is presumed, be sustained. They 
have invariably either rented houses, where such as 
were suitable could be obtained, or, where they could 
not, purchased the ground of individuals, erected the 
buildings, and held them under the laws of the state. 
Under the power to establish postoffices and post- 
roads, houses are also requisite for the reception of 
the mails and the transaction of the business of the 
several offices. These have always been rented or 
purchased, and held under the laws of the state, in the 
same manner as if they had been taken by a citizen. 
The United States have a right to establish tribunals 
inferior to the supreme court, and such have been 



392 Monroe's administration. 

established in every state of the Union. It is believed 
that the houses for these inferior courts have invaria- 
bly been rented. No right of jurisdiction in them has 
ever been claimed, nor other right than that of privi- 
lege, and that only vv'hile the court was in session. A 
still stronger case may be urged. Should Congress 
be compelled, by invasion or other cause, to remove 
the government to some town within one of the states, 
would they have a right of jurisdiction over such 
town, or hold even the house in which they held their 
session, under other authority than the laws of such 
state 1 It is believed that they would not. If they 
have a right to appropriate money for any of these 
purposes, to be laid out under the protection of the 
laws of the state, surely they have an equal right to 
do it for the purposes of internal improvements. 

" It is believed that there is not a corporation in the 
Union which does not exercise great discretion in the 
application of the money raised by it, to the purposes 
of its institution. It would be strange if the govern- 
ment of the United States, which was instituted for 
such important purposes, and endowed with such ex- 
tensive powers, should not be allowed at least equal 
discretion and authority. The evil to be particularly 
avoided is, the violation of state rights ; shunning that, 
it seems to be reasonable and proper that the powers 
of Congress should be so construed as that the gene- 
ral government, in its intercourse with other nations, 
and in our internal concerns, should be able to adopt 
all such measures, lying within the fair scope, and 



MOjXROk's ADiMlMSTRATIOX. 393 

intended to facilitate the direct objects of its powers, 
as the pubhc welfare may require, and a sound and 
provident policy dictate. 

"The measures of Congress have been in strict 
accord with the view taken of the right of appropria- 
tion, both as to its extent and limitation, as will be 
shown by a reference to the laws, commencing at a 
very early period. Many roads have been opened, 
of which the following are the principal : The first, 
from Cumberland, at the head waters of the Potomac, 
in the state of Maryland, through Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, to the state of Ohio, March 29, 1806. See 
vol. 4th, page 13, of the late edition of the laws. The 
second, from the frontiers of Georgia, on the route 
from Athens to New Orleans, to its intersection with 
the 31st degree of north latitude : April 31st, 1806, 
page 58. The third, from Mississippi, at a point and 
by a route described, to the Ohio ; same act. The 
fourth, from Nashville, in Tennessee, to Natchez : 
same act. The fifth, from the 31st degree of north 
latitude, on the route from Athens to New Orleans, 
under such regulations as might be agreed on between 
the executive and the Spanish government : March 
3d, 1807, page 117. The sixth, from the foot of the 
rapids of the river Miami, of Lake Erie, to the western 
line of the Connecticut reserve : December 12th, 1811, 
page 364. The seventh, from the Lower Sandusky 
to the boundary line established by the treaty of 
Greenville : same act. The eighth, from a point 
where the United States road, leading from Vincennes 



394 • Monroe's administration. 

to the Indian boundary line, established by the treaty 
of Greenville, strikes the said line, to the North Bend, 
in the state of Ohio : January 8th, 1812, page 367. 
The ninth, for repairing, and keeping in repair, the 
road between Columbia, on Duck river, in Tennessee, 
and Madisonville, in Louisiana ; and also the road 
between Fort Hawkins, in Georgia, and Fort Stod- 
dard : April 27th, 1816, page 104 of the acts of that 
year. The tenth, from the Shawneetown, on the 
Ohio river, to the Sabine, and to Kaskaskias, in Illi- 
nois : April 27th, 1816, page 112. The eleventh, from 
Reynoldsburg, on Tennessee river, in the state of 
Tennessee, through the Chickasaw nation, to intersect 
the Natchez road near the Chickasaw old town : 
March 3d, 1817, page 252. The twelfth : by this act, 
authority was given to the president to appoint three 
commissioners for the purpose of examining the coun- 
try, and laying out a road from the termination of the 
Cumberland road, at Wheehng, on the Ohio, through 
the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to a point to 
be chosen by them, on the left bank of the Mississippi, 
between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois river, 
and to report an accurate plan of the said road, with 
an estimate of the expense of making it. It is, how- 
ever, declared by the act, that nothing was thereby 
intended to imply an obligation, on the part of the 
United States, to make, or defray the expense of 
making the said road, or any part thereof. 

"In the late war, two other roads were made by 
the troops, for military purposes ; one from the Upj t 



moxroe's administration. 395 

Sandusky, in the state of Ohio, through the Black 
Swamp, toward Detroit, and another from Plattsburg, 
on Lake Champlain, through the Chatougee woods, 
toward Sackett's harbor, which have since been re- 
paired and improved by the troops. Of these latter 
there is no notice in the laws. The extra pay to the 
soldiers for repairing and improving those roads, was 
advanced, in the first instance, from the appropriation 
to the quartermaster's department, and afterward 
provided for by a specific appropriation by Congress. 
The necessity of keeping those roads open and in 
good repair, being, on the frontier, to facilitate a com- 
munication between our posts, is apparent. 

"All of these roads, except the first, were formed 
merely by cutting down the trees, and throwing logs 
across so as to make causeways over such parts as 
were otherwise impassable. The execution was of 
the coarsest kind. The Cumberland road is the only 
regular work which has been undertaken by the gene- 
ral government, or which could give rise to any ques- 
tion between the two governments respecting its 
powers. It is a great work, over the highest moun- 
tains in our Union, connecting, from the seat of gov- 
ernment, the eastern with the w^estern waters, and 
more intimately the Atlantic with the western states, 
in the formation of which 1,800,000 dollars have been 
expended. The measures pursued in this case require 
to be particularly noticed, as fixing the opinion of the 
parties, and particularly of Congress, on the important 

question of the right. Passing through Maryland, 

17# 



396 Monroe's administration. 

Pennsylvania, and Virginia, it was tliought necessary 
and pi'oper to bring the subject before their respective 
legislatures, to obtain their sanction, which was grant- 
ed by each state, by a legislative act, approving the 
route and providing for the purchase and condemna- 
tion of the land. This road was founded on an article 
of compact between the United States and the state 
of Ohio, under which that state came into the Union, 
and by which the expense attending it was to be de- 
frayed by the application of a certain portion of the 
money arising from the sale of the public lands within 
that state. In this instance, which is by far the 
strongest, in respect to the expense, extent, and nature 
of the work done, the United States have exercised 
no act of jurisdiction or sovereignty within either of 
the states, by taking the land from the proprietors by 
force ; by passing acts for the protection of the road ; 
or to raise a revenue from it by the establishment of 
turnpikes and tolls ; or any other act founded on the 
principle of jurisdiction or right. Whatever they 
have done has, on the contrary, been founded on the 
opposite principle ; on the voluntary and unqualified 
admission that the sovereignty belonged to the state, 
and not to the United States ; and that they could 
perform no act which should tend to weaken the 
power of the state, or to assume any to themselves. 
All that they have done has been to appropriate the 
public money to the construction of this road, and to 
cause it to be constructed ; for I presume that no dis- 
tinction can be taken between the appropriation of 



iVlONROK S ADMINISTRATION. 397 

money raised by the sale of the pubh'c lands, and of 
that which arises from taxes, duties, imposts, and 
excises ; nor can I believe that the power to appro- 
priate derives any sanction from a provision to that 
effect having been made by an article of compact 
between the United States and the people of the then 
territory of Ohio. This point may, however, be 
placed in a clearer light by a more particular notice 
of the article itself. 

"By an act, of April 30, 1802, entitled, "An act to 
enable the people of the eastern division of the terri- 
tory northwest of the river Ohio to form a constitution 
and state government, and for the admission of s-uch 
state into the Union on an equal footing with the 
original states, and for other purposes," after de- 
scribing the limits of the proposed new state, and 
authorizing the people thereof to elect a convention to 
form a constitution, the three following propositions 
were made to the convention, to be obligatory on the 
United States, if accepted by it : first, that section 
number sixteen of every township, or, where such 
section had been sold, other lands equivalent thereto, 
should be granted to the inhabitants of such township 
for the use of free schools. Second, that the six 
miles reservation, including the salt springs commonly 
called the Sciota springs ; the salt springs near the 
Muskingum river, and in the military tract, with the 
sections which include the same, should be granted to 
the said state, for the use of the people thereof, under 
such regulations as the legislature of the state should 



398 Monroe's administration. 

prescribe : provided, tliat it should never sell or lease 
the same for more than ten years. Third, that one 
twentieth part of the proceeds of the public lands 
lying w^ithin the said state, which might be sold by 
Congress, from and after the 30th June ensuing, should 
be applied to the laying out and making public roads 
from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic 
to the Ohio, and through the state of Ohio ; such roads 
to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with 
the consent of the several states through which they 
should pass. 

" These three propositions were made on the con- 
dition that the convention of the state should provide, 
by an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of 
the United States, that every tract of land sold by 
Congress, after the 30th of June ensuing, should re- 
main, for the term of five years after sale, exempt 
from every species of tax whatsoever. 

" It is impossible to read the ordinance of the 23d 
of April, 1784, or the provisions of the act of April 
30th, 1802, which are founded on it, without being 
profoundly impressed with the enlightened and mag- 
nanimous policy which dictated them. Anticipating 
that the new states would be settled by the inhabitants 
of the original states and their offspring, no narrow 
or contracted jealousy was entertained of their admis- 
sion into the Union, in equal participation in the 
national sovereignty with the original states. It was 
foreseen at the early period at which that ordinance 
passed, that the expansion of our Union to the lakes 



Monroe's administration. 399 

and to the Mississippi and all its waters, would not 
only nnake us a greater power, but cement the Union 
itself. These three propositions were well calculated 
to promote these great results. A grant of land to 
each township, for free schools, and of the salt springs 
to the state, which were within its limits, for the use 
of its citizens, with five per cent, of the money to be 
raised from the sale of lands within the state, for the 
construction of roads between the original states and 
the new state, and of other roads within the state, 
indicated a spirit not to be mistaken, nor could it fail 
to produce a corresponding effect in the bosoms of 
those to whom it was addressed. For these consider- 
ations the sole return required of the convention was, 
that the new state should not tax the public lands 
which might be sold by the United States within it, 
for the term of five years after they should be sold. 
As the value of these lands would be enhanced by 
this exemption from taxes for that term, and from 
which the new state would derive its proportionable 
benefit, and as it would also promote the rapid sale of 
those lands, and with it the augmentation of its own 
population, it can not be doubted, had this exemption 
been suggested, unaccompanied by any propositions 
of particular advantage, that the convention would, in 
consideration of the relation which had before existed 
between the parties, and was about to be so much 
improved, most willingly have acceded to it, and with- 
out regarding it as an onerous condition. 

"Since, then, it appears that the whole of the 



400 Monroe's ad3iinistration. 



money to be employed in making this road, was to be 
raised from the sale of the public lands, and which 
would still belong to the United States; although no 
mention had been made of them in the compact, it 
follows that the application of the money to that pur- 
pose stands upon the same grounds as if such compact 
had not been made, and, in consequence, that the 
example in favor of the right of appropriation is in no 
manner affected by it. 

"The same rule of construction of the right of ap- 
propriation has been observed, and the same liberal 
policy pursued, toward the other new states, with 
certain modifications adapted to the situation of each, 
which were adopted with the state of Ohio. As, 
however, the reasoning which is applicable to the 
compact with Ohio, in relation to the right of appro- 
priation, in which light only I have adverted to it, is 
equally applicable to the several compacts with the 
other new states, I deem it unnecessary to take a 
particular notice of them, 

" It is proper to observe that the money which was 
employed in the construction of all the other roads, 
was taken directly from the treasury. This fact 
affords an additional proof, that, in the contemplation 
of Congress, no difference existed in the application 
of money to those roads, between that which was 
raised by the sale of lands, and that which was de- 
rived from taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. 

"So far, I have confined my remarks to the acts of 
Congress respecting the right of appropriation to such 



MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 401 

measures only as operate internally and affect the 
territory of the individual states. In adverting to 
those w-hich operate externally and relate to foreign 
powers, I find only tw^o which appear to merit par- 
ticular attention. These were gratuitous grants of 
money for the relief of foreigners in distress ; the first 
in 1794, to the inhabitants of St. Domingo, who sought 
an asylum on our coast from the convulsions and 
calamities of the island ; the second in 1812, to the 
people of Caraccas, reduced to misery by an earth- 
quake. The considerations which were applicable to 
these grants have already been noticed and need not 
be repeated. 

"In this examination of the right of appropriation, 
I thought it proper to present to view, also, the prac- 
tice of the government under it, and to explore the 
ground on which each example rested, that the precise 
nature and extent of the construction thereby given 
of the right might be clearly understood. The right 
to raise money would have given, as is presumed, the 
right to use it, although nothing had been said to that 
effect in the constitution. And where the right to 
raise it is granted, without special Hmitation, we must 
look for such limitation to other causes. Our atten- 
tion is first drawn to the right to appropriate, and not 
finding it there, we must then look to the general 
powers of the government, as designated by the spe- 
cific grants, and to the purposes contemplated by 
them, allowing to this the right to raise money, the 
first and most important of the enumerated powers, a 



402 Monroe's administration. 

scope which will be competent to those purposes 
The practice of the government, as illustrated by 
numerous and strong examples directly applicable, 
ought surely to have great weight in fixing the con- 
struction of each grant. It ought, I presume, to settle 
it, especially where it is acquiesced in by the nation, 
and produces a manifest and positive good. A practi- 
cal construction, thus supported, shows that it has 
reason on its side, and is called for by the interests of 
the Union. Hence, too, the presumption that it will 
be persevered in. It will, surely, be better to admit 
that the construction given by these examples has 
been just and proper, than to deny that construction 
and still to practise on it — to say one thing and to do 
another. 

" Wherein consists the danger of giving a liberal 
construction to the right of Congress to raise and ap- 
propriate the public money? It has been shown that 
its obvious effect is to secure the rights of the states 
from encroachment, and greater harmony in the politi- 
cal movement between the two governments, while it 
enlarges, to a certain extent, in the most harmless 
way, the useful agency of the general government for 
all the purposes of its institution. Is not the responsi- 
bihty of the representative to his constituent, in every 
branch of the general government, equally strong, and 
as sensibly felt, as in the state governments 1 and is 
not the security against abuse as effectual in the orie 
as in the other government] The history of the gen- 
eral government, in all its measures, fully demonstrates 



Monroe's administration. 403 

that Congress will never venture to impose unncessa- 
ry burdens on the people, or any that can be avoided. 
Duties and imposts have always been light, not greater, 
perhaps, than would have been imposed for the en- 
couragement of our manufactures, had there been no 
occasion for the revenue arising from them ; and taxes 
and excises, have never been laid, except in cases of 
necessity, and repealed as soon as the necessity ceased. 
Under this mild process, and the sale of some hun- 
dreds of millions of acres of good land, the govern- 
ment will be possessed of money, which may be 
applied with great advantage to national purposes. 
Within the states onl}'- will it be applied, and, of course, 
for their benefit, it not being presumable that such 
appeals as were made to the benevolence of the coun- 
try in the instances of the inhabitants of St. Domingo 
and Caraccas, will often occur. How, then, shall this 
revenue be applied ? Should it be idle in the treasury] 
That our resources will be equal to such useful pur- 
poses, I have no doubt, especially if, by completing 
our fortifications, and raising and maintaining our 
navy at the point provided for, immediately after the 
war, we sustain our present altitude, and preserve, by 
means thereof, for any leligth of time, the peace of the 
Union. 

"When we hear charges raised against other gov- 
ernments of breaches of their constitutions, or rather 
of their charters, we always anticipate the most 
serious consequences : communities deprived of privi- 
leges which they have long enjoyed, or individuals 



404 Monroe's administration. 

oppressed and punished, in violation of the ordinary- 
forms and guards of trial to which they were accus- 
tomed and entitled. How different is the situation of 
the United States ! Nor can anything mark more 
strongly the great characteristics of that difference, 
than the grounds on which like charges are raised 
against this government. It is not alleged that any 
portion of the community, or any individual, has been 
oppressed, or that money has been raised under a 
doubtful title. The principal charges are, that a work 
of great utility to the Union, and affecting, immediate- 
ly, and with hke advantage, many of the states, has 
been constructed ; that pensions to the surviving 
patriots of our revolution, to patriots who fought the 
battles and promoted the independence of their coun- 
try, have been granted, by money, too, raised not only 
without oppression, but almost without being felt, and 
under an acknowledged constitutional power. 

"From this view of the right to appropriate, and of 
the practice under it, I think that I am authorized to 
conclude, that the right to make internal improve- 
ments has not been granted by the power "to pay the 
debts, and provide for the common defence and gene- 
ral welfare," included in the first of the enumerated 
powers ; that that grant conveys nothing more than a 
right to appropriate the public money, and stands on 
the same ground with the right to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, conveyed by the 
first branch of that power ; that the government itself 
being limited, both branches of the power to raise and 



moxroe's administration*. 405 

appropriate the public moneys are also limited ; the 
extent of the governmeni, as designated by the spe- 
cific grants, marking the extent of the power in both 
branches, extending, however, to every object em- 
braced by the fair scope of those grants, and not con- 
fined to a strict construction of their respective powers, 
it being safer to aid the purposes of those grants by 
the appropriation of money, than to extend, by a forced 
construction, the grant itself. That, although the 
right to appropriate the public money to such improve- 
ments afibrds a resource indispensably necessary to 
such a scheme, it is, nevertheless, deficient as a power 
in the great characteristics on which its execution 
depends. 

" The substance of what has been urged on this 
subject may be expressed in a few words. My idea 
is, that Congress have an unlimited power to raise 
money, and that in its appropriation, they have a dis- 
cretionary power, restricted only by the duty to 
appropriate it to purposes of common defence, and of 
general, not local, national, not state, benefit. 

" I will now proceed to the fifth source from which 
the power is said to be derived, viz. The power to 
make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into execution all the powers vested by the 
constitution in the government of the United States, 
or in any department or officer thereof. This is the 
17th and last of the enumerated powers granted to 
Congress. 

"I have always considered this power as having 



406 Monroe's administration. 

been granted on a principle of greater caution to 
secure the complete execution of all the powers which 
had been vested in the general government. It con- 
tains no distinct and specfic power, as every other 
grant does, such as to lay and collect taxes, to declare 
war, to regulate commerce, and the like. Looking to 
the whole scheme of the general government, it gives 
to Congress authority to make all laws which should 
be deemed necessary and proper for carrying all its 
powers into effect. My impression has been invaria- 
bly, that this power would have existed, substantially, 
if this grant had not been made ; for why is any power 
granted, unless it be to be executed when required, 
and how can it be executed under our government, 
unless it be by laws necessary and proper for the 
purpose, that is, well adapted to the end 1 It is a 
principle universally admitted, that a grant of a power 
conveys, as a necessary consequence or incident to it, 
the means of carrying it into effect, by a fair con- 
struction of its import. In the formation, however, 
of a constitution which was to act directly upon the 
people, and be paramount, to the extent of its powers, 
to the constitutions of the states, it was wise in its 
framers to leave nothing to imphcation which might 
be reduced to certainty. It is known that all power 
which rests solely on that ground has been systemati- 
cally and zealously opposed, under all governments 
with which we have any acquaintance ; and it was 
reasonable to presume that, under our system, where 
there was a division of the sovereignty between two 



Monroe's administration. 407 

independent governments, the measures of the general 
government would excite equal jealousy, and produce 
an opposition not less systematic, though, perhaps, less 
violent. Hence the policy, by the framers of our 
government, of securing, by a fundamental declara- 
tion in the constitution, a principle vehich, in all other 
governments, had been left to implication only. The 
terms necessary and proper secure to the powers of 
all the grants, to which the authority given in this is 
applicable, a fair and sound construction, which is 
equally binding, as a rule, on both governments, and 
on all their departments. 

*' In examining the right of the general government 
to adopt and execute, under this grant, a system of 
internal improvement, the sole question to be decided 
is, whether the power has been granted under any of 
the other grants. If it has, this power is applicable to 
it, to the extent stated. If it has not, it does not exist 
at all, for it has not been hereby granted. I have 
already examined all the other grants (one only ex- 
cepted, which will next claim attention), and shown, 
as I presume, on the most liberal construction of their 
powers, that the right has not been granted by any of 
them. Hence it follows, that, in regard to them, it 
has not been granted by this. 

"I come now to the last source from which this 
power is said to be derived, viz., the power to dispose 
of, and make all needful rules and regulations respect- 
ing, the territory or other property of the United 
States, which is contained in the second clause of the 
third section of the fourth article of the constitution. 



408 Monroe's adiministration. 

"To form a just opinion of the nature and extent 
of this power, it will be necessary to bring into view 
the provisions contained in the first clause of the sec- 
tion of the article referred to, which makes an essen- 
tial part of the policy in question. By this it is 
declared, that new states shall be admitted into the 
Union, but that no new state shall be formed, or 
erected, within the jurisdiction of any other slate : 
nor any state be formed by the junction of two or 
more states, or parts of states, without the consent of 
the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of 
the United States. 

"If we recur to the condition of our country, at the 
commencement of the revolution, we shall see the 
origin and cause of these provisions. By the charters 
of the several colonies, limits by latitude and other 
descriptions were assigned to each. In commencing 
the revolution, the colonies, as has already been ob- 
served, claimed by those limits, although their popula- 
tion extended, in many instances, to a small portion 
of the territory lying within them. It was contended 
by some of the states, after the declaration of indepen- 
dence, that the vacant lands, lying within any of the 
states, should become the property of the Union, as, 
by a common exertion, they would be acquired. This 
claim was resisted by the others, on the principle that 
all the states entered into the contest in the full extent 
of their chartered rights, and that they ought to have 
the full benefit of those rights in the event of success. 
Happily, this controversy was settled, as all inter- 



Monroe's administration. 409 

fering claims and pretensions, between the members 
of our Union, and between the general government, 
and any of these members, have been, in the most 
amicable manner, and to the satisfaction of all parties. 
On the recommendation of Congress, the -individual 
states, having such territory within their chartered 
limits, ceded large portions thereof to the United 
States, on condition that it should be laid off into dis- 
tricts of proper dimensions, the lands to be sold for the 
benefit of the United States ; and that the districts be 
admitted into the Union, when they should obtain such 
a population as it might be thought proper and reason- 
able to prescribe. This is the territory, and this the 
property, referred to in the second clause of the 4th 
article of the constitution. 

" All the states which had made cessions of vacant 
territory, except Georgia, had made them before the 
adoption of the constitution, and that state had made 
a proposition to Congress to that efiect, which was 
under consideration at the time the constitution was 
adopted. The cession was completed after the adop- 
tion of the constitution. It was made on the same 
principle, and on similar conditions, with those which 
had been already made by the other states. As dif- 
ferences might arise respecting the right or the policy 
in Congress to admit new states into the Union, under 
the new government, or to make regulations for the 
government of the territory ceded in the intermediate 
state, or for the improvement and sale of the public 
lands, or to accept other cessions, it was thought pro- 



410 Monroe's administration. 

per to make special provisions for these objects, which 
was accordingly done by the above recited clause in 
the constitution. 

" Thus the power of Congress over the ceded terri- 
tory was not only limited to these special objects, but 
was also temporary. As soon as the territory became 
a state, the jurisdiction over it, as it had before exist- 
ed, ceased. It extended afterward only to the unsold 
lands, and as soon as the whole were sold, it ceased 
in that sense, also, altogether. From that moment, 
the United States have no jurisdiction or power in the 
new states, other than in the old, nor can it be ob- 
tained except by an amendment of the constitution. 

" Since then it is manifest that the power granted 
to Congress to dispose of, and make all needful regu- 
lations respecting, the territory and other property of 
the United States, relates solely to the territory and 
property which had been ceded by individual states, 
and which, after such cession, lay without their 
respective limits, and for which special provision was 
deemed necessary, the main powers of the constitution 
operating internally, not being applicable or adequate 
thereto, it follows that this power gives no authority, 
and has even no bearing on the question of internal 
improvement. The authority to admit new states 
and to dispose of the property and regulate the terri- 
tory, is not among the enumerated powers granted to 
Congress, because the duties to be performed under it 
are not among the ordinary duties of that body, like 
the imposition of taxes, the regulation of commerce, 



Monroe's administration. 411 

and the like. They are objects in their nature special, 
and for which special provision was more suitable and 
proper. 

"Having now examined all the powers of Congress, 
under which the right to adopt and execute a system 
of internal improvement is claimed, and the reasons in 
support of it, in each instance, I think that it may 
fairly be concluded that such a right has not been 
granted. It appears, and is admitted, that much may 
be done in aid of such a system, by the right which is 
derived from several of the existing grants, and more 
especially from that to appropriate the public money. 
But still it is manifest, that, as a system for the United 
States, it can never be carried into effect, under that 
grant, nor under all of them united, the great and 
essential power being deficient ; consisting of a right 
to take up the subject on principle ; to cause our Union 
to be examined by men of science, with a view to 
such improvements ; to authorize commissioners to 
lay off the roads and canals in all proper directions ; 
to take the land at a valuation if necessary, and to con- 
struct the works ; to pass laws, with suitable penalties 
for their protection; and to raise a revenue from 
them ; to keep them in repair, and make further im- 
provement, by the establishment of turnpikes and tolls, 
with gates to be placed at the proper distances. 

" It need scarcely be remarked, that this power will 
operate, like many others now existing, without affect- 
ing the sovereignty of the states, except in the par- 
ticular offices to be performed. The jurisdiction of 

18 



412 Monroe's administration. 

the several states may still exist over the roads and 
canals vi^iihin their respective limits, extending alike to 
persons and property, as if the right to make and pro- 
tect such improvements had not been vested in Con- 
gress. The right being made commensurate simply 
with the purposes indispensable to the system, may be 
strictly confined to them. The right of Congress to 
protect the works, by laws, imposing penalties, would 
operate on the same principle as the right to protect 
the mail. The act being punishable only, a jurisdiction 
over the place would be altogether unnecessary, and 
even absurd. 

" In the preceding inquiry, little has been said of 
the advantages which would attend the exercise of 
such a power by the general government. I have 
made the inquiry under a deep conviction that they 
are almost incalculable, and that there was a general 
concurrence of opinion among our fellow-citizens to 
that effect. Still it may not be improf»er for me to 
state the grounds upon which my own impression is 
founded. If it sheds no additional light on this inter- 
esting part of the subject, it will, at least, show that I 
have had more than one powerful motive for making 
the inquiry. A general idea is all that I shall attempt. 

" The advantages of such a system must depend 
upon the interests to be affected by it, and the extent 
to which they may be affected, and those must depend 
on the capacity of our country for improvement, and 
the means at its command applicable to that object. 

"I think that I may venture to afiirm that there is 



MONROES ADMINISTRATION. 413 

no part of our globe, comprehending so many degrees 
of latitude on the main ocean, and so many degrees 
of longitude into the interior, that admits of such 
great improvement, and at so little expense. The 
Atlantic, on the one side, and the lakes, forming 
almost inland seas, on the other ; separated by high 
mountains which rise in the valley of the St, Law- 
rence, and terminate in that of the Mississippi, tra- 
versing from north to south, almost the whole interior ; 
with innumerable rivers on every side of those moun- 
tains, some of vast extent, many of which take their 
sources near to each other, give the great outline ; the 
details are to be seen on the valuable maps of our 
country. 

"It appears, by the light already before the public, 
that it is practicable and easy to connect, by canals, 
the whole coast, from its southern to its northern 
extremity, in one continued inland navigation ; and to 
connect, in like manner, in many parts, the western 
lakes and rivers with each other. It is equally prac- 
ticable and easy to facilitate the intercourse between 
the Atlantic and the western country, by improving 
the navigation of many of the rivers, which have their 
sources near to each other in the mountains, on each 
side, and by good roads across the mountains, between 
the highest navigable points of those rivers. In addi- 
tion to the example of the Cumberland road, already 
noticed, another of this kind is now in train, from the 
head waters of the river James to those of the Kana- 
wha; and in like manner may the Savannah be con- 



414 Monroe's administration. 

nected with the Tennessee. In some instances it is 
understood that the eastern and western waters may 
be connected together directly, by canals. One great 
work of this kind is now in its progress, and far ad- 
vanced in the state of New York, and there is good 
reason to believe that two others may be formed, one 
at each extremity of the high mountains above men- 
tioned, connecting in the one instance the waters of 
the St. Lawrence with Lake Champlain, and in the 
other, some of the most important of the western 
rivers with those emptying into the gulf of Mexico ; 
the advantage of which will be seen at the first glance, 
by an enhsrhtened observer. 

''Great improvements may also be made by good 
roads, in proper directions, through the interior of the 
country. As these roads would be laid out on princi- 
ple, on a full view of the country, its mountains, rivers, 
&c., it would be useless, if I had the knowledge, to go 
into detail respecting them. — Much has been done by 
some of the states, but yet much remains to be done 
with a view to the Union. 

"Under the colonial governments, improvements of 
this kind were not thought of. There was, it is be- 
lieved, not one canal, and Uttle communication from 
colony to colony. It was their policy to encourage 
the intercourse between each colony and the parent 
country only. The roads which were attended to, 
were those which led from the interior of each colony 
to its principal towns on the navigable waters. By 
those routes the produce of the country was carried 



Monroe's administration. 415 

to the coast, and shipped thence to the mercantile 
houses in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, or other towns 
to which the trade v/as carried on. It is believed 
that there was but one connected route from north to 
south at the commencement of the revolution ; and 
that a very imperfect one. The existence and prin- 
ciple of our union point out the necessity of a very 
different policy. 

"The advantages which would be derived from 
such improvements are incalculable. The facility 
which would thereby be afforded to the transportation 
of the whole of the rich productions of our country to 
market, would alone more than amply compensate for 
all the labor and expense attending them. Great, 
however, as is that advantage, it is one only of many, 
and by no means the most important. Every power 
of the general government and of the state govern- 
ments, connected with the strength and resources of 
the country, would be made more efficient for the 
, purposes intended by them. In war, they would facil- 
itate the transportation of men, ordnance, and pro- 
visions, and munitions of war of every kind, to every 
part of our extensive coast and interior, on which an 
attack might be made or threatened. Those who 
have any knowledge of the occurrences of the late 
war, must know the good effect which would result 
in the event of another war, from the command of an 
interior navigation alone, along the coast, for all the 
purposes of war, as well as of commerce, between the 
different parts of our Union. The impediments to all 



416 Monroe's administration. 

military operations, which proceeded from the want 
of such a navigation, and the reliance which was 
placed, notwithstanding those impediments, on such a 
commerce, can not be forgotten. In every other line 
their good effect would be most sensibly felt. Intelli- 
gence by means of the postoffice department would 
be more easily, extensively, and rapidly diffused. 
Parts the most remote from each other would be 
brought more closely together. Distant lands would 
be made more valuable, and the industry of our fellow- 
citizens, on every portion of our soil, be better re- 
warded. 

" It is natural in so great a variety of climate, that 
there should be a corresponding difference in the pro- 
duce of the soil ; that one part should raise what the 
other might want. It is equally natural that the pur- 
suits of industry should vaiy in like manner ; that 
labor should be cheaper, and manufactures succeed 
better, in one part than in another. That where the 
climate was most severe and the soil less productive, 
navigation, the fisheries, and commerce, should be 
most relied on. Hence the motive for an exchange 
for mutual accommodation, and active intercourse 
between them. Each part would thus find for the 
surplus of its labor, in whatever article it consisted, an 
extensive market at home, which would be the most 
profitable because free from duty. 

"There is another view in which these improvements 
are still of more vital importance. The effect which 
they would have on the bond of union itself, affords 



Monroe's administration. 417 

an inducement for them, more powerful than any 
which have been urged, or than all of them united. 
The only danger to which our system is exposed ari- 
ses from its expansion over a vast territory. Our 
Union is not held together by standing armies, or by 
any ties, other than the positive interests and power- 
ful attractions of its parts toward each other. Ambi- 
tious men may hereafter grow up among us, who may 
promise to themselves advancement from a change, 
and by practising upon the sectional interests, feelings, 
and prejudices, endeavor, under various pretexts, to 
promote it. The history of the Avorld is replete with 
examples of this kind; of military commanders and 
demagogues becoming usurpers and tyrants, and of 
their fellow-citizens becoming their instruments and 
slaves. I have little fear of this danger, knowing well 
how strong the bond which holds us together is, and 
who the people are, who are thus held together; but 
still it is proper to look at, and to provide against it, 
and it is not within the compass of human wisdom to 
make a more effectual provision, than would be made 
by the proposed improvements. With their aid, and 
the intercourse which would grow out of them, the 
parts would soon become so compacted and bound to- 
gether that nothing could break it. 

The expansion of our Union over a vast territory 
can not operate unfavorably to the states individually. 
On the contrary, it is believed that the greater the ex- 
pansion, within practicable limits, and it is not easy to 
say what are not so, the greater the advantage which 



418 MOkROE's ADMINISTRATION. 

the states individually will derive from it. With gov- 
ernments separate, vigorous, and efficient for all local 
purposes, their distance from each other can have no 
injurious effect upon their respective interests. It 
has already been shown, that, in some important cir- 
cumstances, especially with the aid of these improve- 
ments, they must derive great advantage from that 
cause alone, that is, from their distance from each 
other. In every other way, the expansion of our sys- 
tem must operate favorably for every state, in propor- 
tion as it operates favorably for the Union. It is in 
that sense only that it can become a question with the 
states, or rather with the people who compose them. 
As states they can be affected by it only by their rela- 
tion to each other through the general government, 
and by its effects on the operations of that govern- 
ment. Manifest it is, that to any extent to which the 
general government can sustain and execute its func- 
tions with complete effect, will the states, that is, the 
people who compose them, be benefited. It is only 
when the expansion shall be carried beyond the facul- 
ties of the general government, so as to enfeeble its 
operations, to the injury of the whole, that any of the 
parts can be injured. The tendency, in that stage, 
will be to dismemberment, and not to consolidation. 
This danger should, therefore, be looked at with pro- 
found attention, as one of a very serious character. I 
will remark here, that, as the operations of the national 
government are of a general nature, the states having 
complete power for internal and local purposes, the 



.>IO\ROF,'s AHMIMSTRATION. 419 

expansion may be carried to very great extent, and 
with perfect safety. It must be obvious to all, that 
the further the expansion is carried, provided it be 
not beyond the just limit, the greater will be the free- 
dom of action to both governments, and the more per- 
fect their security ; and in all other respects, the better 
the effect will be to the whole American people. Ex- 
tent of territory, whether it be great or small, gives 
to a nation many of its characteristics. It marks the 
extent of its resources, of its population, of its physi- 
cal force. It marks, in short, the difference between 
a great and a small power. 

"To what extent it may be proper to expand our 
system of government, is a question which does not 
press for a decision at this time. At the end of the 
revolutionary war, in 1783, we had, as we contended 
and believed, a right to the free navigation of the 
Mississippi, but it was not until after the expiration 
of twelve years, in 1795, that that right was acknow- 
ledged and enjoyed. Further difficulties occurred, in 
the bustling of a contentious world, when, at the expi- 
ration of eight years more, the United States, sustain- 
ing the strength and energy of their character, 
acquired the province of Louisiana, with the free 
navigation of the river, from its source to the ocean, 
and a liberal boundary on the western side. To this, 
Florida has since been added, so that we now possess 
all the territory in which the original states had any 
interest, or in which the existing states can be said, 

either in a national or local point of view, to be in any 

18* 



420 Monroe's administration. 

way interested. A range of states on the western 
side of the Mississippi, which already is provided for, 
puts us essentially at ease. Whether it will be wise 
to go further, will turn on other considerations than 
those which have dictated the course heretofore pur- 
sued. At whatever point we may stop, whether it be 
at a single range of states beyond the Mississippi, or 
by taking a greater scope, the advantage of such im- 
provements is deemed of the highest importance. It 
is so, on the present scale. The further we go, the 
greater will be the necessity for them. 

"It can not be doubted, that improvements for great 
national purposes would be better made by the national 
government, than by the governments of the several 
states. Our experience, prior to the adoption of the 
constitution, demonstrated, that in the exercise by the 
individual states of most of the powers granted to the 
United States, a contracted rivalry of interests, and 
misapplied jealousy of each other, had an important 
influence on all their measures, to the great injury of 
the whole. This was particularly exemplified by the 
regulations which they severally made, of their com- 
merce with foreign nations, and with each other. It 
was this utter incapacity in the state governments, 
proceeding from these and other causes, to act as a 
nation, and to perform all the duties which the nation 
owed to itself, under any system which left the gene- 
ral government dependent on the states, which pro- 
duced the transfer of these powers to the United 
States, by the establishment of the present constitu- 



Monroe's administration. 421 

tion.— The reasoning which was applicable to the 
grant of any of the powers now vested in Congress, 
is hkewise so, at least to a certain extent, to that in 
question. It is natural that the states, individually, 
in making improvements, should look to their particu- 
lar and local interests. The members composing their 
respective legislatures represent the people of each 
state, only, and might not feel themselves at liberty 
to look to objects, in these respects, beyond that limit. 
If the resources of the Union were to be brought into 
operation under the direction of the state assemblies, 
or in concert with them, it inay be apprehended that 
every measure would become the object of negotia- 
lion, of bargain and barter, much to the disadvantage 
of the system, as well as discredit to both govern- 
ments. But Congress would look to the whole, and 
make improvements to promote the welfare of the 
whole. It is the peculiar felicity of the proposed 
amendment, that while it will enable the United States 
to accompHsh every national object, the improvements 
made with that view will eminently promote the wel- 
fare of the individual states, who may also add such 
others as their own particular interests may require. 

"The situation of the Cumberland road requires the 
particular and early attention of Congress. Being 
formed over very lofty mountains, and in many in- 
stances over deep and wide streams, across which 
valuable bridges have been erected, which are sus- 
tained by stone walls, as are many other parts of the 
road, all these works are subject to decay, have de- 



422 Monroe's ADMmisTRATioN. 

cayed, and will decay rapidly, unless timely and effec- 
tual measures are adopted to prevent it. 

" The declivities from the mountains, and all the 
heights, must sufter from the frequent and heavy falls 
of vi^ater, and its descent to the valleys, as also from 
the deep congelations during our severe w^inters. 
Other injuries have also been experienced on this road, 
such as the displacing the capping of the walls, and 
other works, committed by worthless people, either 
from a desire to render the road impassable, or to 
have the transportation in another direction, or from 
a spirit of wantonness to create employment for idlers. 
These considerations show, that an active and strict 
police ought to be established over the whole road, 
with power to make repairs when necessary ; to 
establish turnpikes and tolls, as the moans of raising 
money to make them ; and to prosecute and punish 
those who commit waste and other injuries. 

"Should the United States be willing to abandon 
this road to the states through which it passes, would 
they take charge of it, each of that portion within its 
limits, and keep it in repair] It is not to be presumed 
that they would, since the advantages attending it are 
exclusively national, by connecting, as it does, the 
Atlantic with the western states, and in a line with 
the seat of the national government. The most ex- 
pensive parts of this road lie within Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, very near the confines of each state, and in 
a route not essentially connected with the commerce 
of either. 



MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 423 

"If it is thought proper to vest this power in the 
United States, the only mode in which it can be done 
is, by an amendment of the constitution. The states, 
individually, can not transfer the power to the United 
States, nor can the United States receive it. The 
constitution forms an equal and the sole relation be- 
tween the general government and the several states ; 
and it recognises no change in it, which shall not, in 
hke manner apply to all. If it is once admitted, that 
the general government may form compacts with 
individual states, not common to the others, and which 
the others might even disapprove, into what perni- 
cious consequences might it not lead I Such compacts 
are utterly repugnant to the principles of the consti- 
tution, and of the most dangerous tendency. The 
states, through which this road passes, have given 
their sanction only to the route, and to the acquisition 
of the soil by the United States — a right very different 
from that of jurisdiction, which can not be granted 
without an amendment to the constitution, and which 
need not be granted for the purposes of this system, 
except in the limited manner heretofore stated. On 
full consideration, therefore, of the whole subject, I 
am of opinion that such an amendment ought to be 
recommended to the several states for their adoption. 

"I have now essentially executed that part of the 
task which I imposed on myself, of examining the right 
of Congress to adopt and execute a system of internal 
improvement, and I presume have shown that it does 
not exist. It is, I think, equally manifest, that such a 



424 Monroe's administratiox. 

power vested in Congress, and wisely executed, would 
have the happiest effect, on all the great interests of 
our Union. It is, however, my opinion that the power 
should be confined to great national works only, since, 
if it were unlimited, it would be liable to abuse, and 
might be productive of evil. For all minor improve- 
ments,, the resources of the states individually, would 
be fully adequate, and by the states such improvements 
might be made with greater advantage than by the 
Union ; as they would understand better such as their 
more immediate and local interests required." 

Congress finally closed its session on the 8th day of 
May, and re-assembled again on the 2nd day of De- 
cember following. Samuel D. Ingham appeared at 
this session from Pennsylvania, having been elected to 
fill a vacancy. The president, in his annual message, 
stated that the receipts from customs during the year 
1822, would probably amount to twenty-three millions 
of dollars. In regard to the Cumberland Road, he 
repeated the general principles set forth in his expo- 
sition of the 4lh of May previous, drawing a distinc- 
tion, however, as he had formerly done, between the 
right to make appropriations, and the right of exercis- 
ing jurisdiction and sovereignty on the line of the 
route. With respect to the manufacturing interest, 
he again recommended it to the fostering care of 
Congress, but enjoined upon them the necessity of 
proceeding with the greatest caution in making changes 
in existing enactments. 

Few acts of general interest were passed at this 



Monroe's administration. 425 

session. An additional naval force was authorized to 
be employed for the suppression of piracy. A bill to 
increase the duty on woolen goods was introduced, 
and discussed for some time, but it failed to receive a 
favorable vote. Various propositions for the survey 
of canal routes, across Cape Cod, from the Raritan to 
the Delaware, from Ihe Delaware to Chesapeake Bay, 
from the Chesapeake to Albemarle Sound, and from 
Lake Erie to the Ohio river, were brought forward ; 
but none of them received the sanction of Congress. 
As the president had intimated, in his message, his 
willingness to sign a bill providing for the repair of 
the Cumberland road, without assuming the questioned 
right of sovereignty, an appropriation was made for 
that purpose. 

In 1822, a treaty of navigation and commerce with 
France, negotiations for which had long been pending, 
was at length concluded. It was submitted to the 
Senate, and duly ratified, at this session, which came 
to a close on the 3d day of March, 1823. 

The question of the succession to the presidential 
office affected the elections for the eighteenth Congress 
to a certain extent. All the candidates were still in 
the field, with the exception of Mr. Lowndes, who 
died in 1822. Mr. Calhoun, too, was subsequently 
withdrawn, and by nearly general consent adopted as 
the candidate for the vice-presidency of all the fac- 
tions, except the friends of Mr. Crawford. Still, it 
was anticipated that, on account of the number of 
candidates, the election would ultimately devolve on 



4^6 Monroe's administration. 

the House of Representatives ; and the friends of each 
contestant labored to secure as many members as 
possible. 

Congress assembled for its regular session on the 
1st day of December, 1823, and did not adjourn until 
the 26th of May, 1824. Mr. Clay being again returned 
from Kentucky, he was elected Speaker of the House, 
over Mr. P. P. Barbour, the presiding officer of that 
body in the previous Congress, by a large majority. 
Messrs. R. King, Van Buren, Dickerson, Southard, 
Lowrie, S. Smith, J. Barbour, Macon, W. R. King, 
Brown, and Benton, still retained their seats in the 
Senate. Among the new senators who were conspic- 
uous, were John Branch, of North Carolina ; Robert 
Y. Hayne, of South Carolina; and Andrew Jackson, 
of Tennessee. Messrs, J. W. Taylor, P. P. Barbour, 
Mallary, Cambrel ing, Ingham, McLane, Floyd, Mer- 
cer, Randolph, Saunders, McDuffie, and Poinsett, were 
all re-elected. Samuel A. Foot was once more re- 
turned from Connecticut ; and Daniel Webster, who 
had been a prominent federal member from New 
Hampshire during the war, now appeared from the 
state of Massachusetts. John Forsyth, of Georgia, 
William C. Rives, of Virginia, and Edward Living- 
ston, of Louisiana, all leading republicans, were elect- 
ed from their respective states. 

Mr. Southard resigned his seat in the Senate on the 
9th of December, in consequence of his receiving the 
appointment of Secretary of the Navy, in the place 
of Smith Thompson, appointed one of the associate 



MONROE S ADMINISTRATION. 427 

Justices of the Supreme Co rt of the United States. 
On the same day John McLean, of Ohio, was appointed 
postmaster general, in the place of Mr. Meigs, who 
had resigned the office. 

From the annilal message of President Monroe, it 
appeared that measures had been taken to determine 
by amicable negotiation, the respective rights and 
interests of the United States on the one part, and the 
governments of Russia and Great Britain on the other, 
upon the northwest coast of the American continent. 
In referring to this subject, the president made use of 
the following language, which, by the successive 
reiterations of subsequent chief magistrates, has come 
to be regarded as embodying the settled policy of this 
government : — 

" In the discussions," said he, " to which this interest 
has given rise, and in the arrangements by which they 
may terminate, the occasion has been judged proper 
for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and 
interests of the United States are involved, that the 
American continents, by the free and independent 
condition which they have assumed and maintain, are 
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future 
colonization by any European powers." 

The public finances were represented by the Execu- 
tive to be in a highly favorable condition ; it being 
estimated that there would remain a surplus of nearly 
nine millions of dollars in the treasury, on the 1st day 
of January, 1824. He likewise recommended the 
construction of a canal, to connect the waters of the 



428 Monroe's administration. 

Chesapeake with those of the Ohio, as a great national 
work ; provided, however, that the jurisdiction should 
remain with the states through which the canal would 
pass. With regard to the amendment of the tariff, 
he repeated the recommendations of former messages, 
and suggested that additional protection should be 
afforded to those articles we were prepared to manu- 
facture, or which were immediately connected with 
the defence and independence of the country. 

In accordance with the recommendations of the 
president, a tariff act was passed at this session, though 
not without strenuous opposition, raising the duties on 
imported goods. In the senate the majority in favor 
of the bill was four, and in the House only five. A 
general law was also enacted, appropriating the sum 
of thirty thousand dollars, for the survey of routes for 
such roads and canals as the president might deem of 
national importance. As this bill did not come in con- 
flict with the constitutional scruples of the Executive, 
concerning an interference with state jurisdiction, it 
received his approbation and signature. 

But the question of the succession to the presidency 
absorbed almost every topic, and engrossed nearly the 
whole attention of the members of Congress at this 
session. It was ascertained, shortly after they first 
came together, that a decided plurality of the whole 
number were in favor of the nomination of Mr. Craw- 
ford, the then Secretary of the Treasury, who had 
been almost successful in defeating Mr. Monroe in the 
caucus held in 1816. After various projects had been 



Monroe's ADMmigTii^yioj!!. 429 

alternately adopted and rejected, it was finally tacitly 
understood between the friends of the other candidates, 
that they would not go into a caucus. The friends 
of Mr. Crawford, however, headed by Mr. Van Buren, 
Mr. Forsyth, and Mr. Dickerson, caused a call to be 
issued, according to the former usage of the republi- 
can party ; but the caucus, which proved to be the 
last of a similar character, was attended by only sixty- 
six members, embracing, however, nearly all the lead- 
ing politicians of the old republican party. On the 
ballot which was had, Mr. Crawford received sixty- 
four votes, and was declared nominated. Mr. Galla- 
tin was put in nomination for the vice-presidency, but 
subsequently declined. The other candidates were 
supported by their respective friends in the different 
sections of the Union, without the intervention of any 
caucus or convention. 

Neither party succeeded in obtaining a majority of 
the electoral votes, — General Jackson receiving ninety- 
nine, Mr. Adams eighty-four, Mr. Crawford forty- 
one, and Mr. Clay thirty-seven. It was therefore 
left for the eighteenth Congress, which assembled for 
the short session on the 6th of December, 1824, to 
make the selection from the three highest on the list. 
The influence of Mr. Clay being now thrown in favor 
of Mr. Adams, he was duly elected. Mr. Calhoun 
received one hundred and eighty-two electoral votes, 
which secured his election as vice-president. 

The president gave a flattering review of the for- 



430 Monroe's administration. 

eign relations and the domestic interests of the coun- 
try, in his last annual message. He stated that the 
public debt had been reduced to eighty-six millions of 
dollars, and that the current revenue was amply suffi- 
cient to meet all the liabilities of the government, 
including the sum of ten millions appropriated to the 
sinking fund. He also adverted to the fortifications 
which had been constructed, and the military and 
naval armaments which had been provided for the 
defence of the country, and concluded with an earnest 
expression of his grateful thanks for the kindness and 
favor of his countrymen, manifested, on repeated 
occasions, during his long career in public life. 

Very little business of especial importance was trans- 
acted at this session. Mr. King offered a resolution 
in the Senate, proposing that, after the payment of 
the national debt, the proceeds of the public lands 
should be applied to the emancipation of slaves, and 
the removal of free persons of color to some territory 
without the United States. A majority of the sena- 
tors, however, could not be induced to sanction Mr. 
King's proposition, and it was consequently defeated. 

On the 3d day of March, the term of service of the 
members of the eighteenth Congress expired. The 
administration of Mr. Monroe also came to an end ; 
and on the following day he surrendered up the exe- 
cutive power, which he had wielded so long and so 
worthily, into the hands of his successor. In yielding 
up his trust, he could look back upon the past without 



Monroe's administration. 431 

regret, and in the future hopefully count on the endu- 
ring gratitude of his countrymen. 

It has been erroneously said of Mr. Monroe's admin- 
istration, that during its continuance the lines of party 
were entirely obliterated. This is certainly erroneous. 
From the beginning to the end, he was a republican 
of the old Jeffersonian school ; and it is very evident 
that he never approved of a protective tariff, for the 
sake of protection merely, but primarily for the sake 
of revenue, the former being only the incidental ob- 
ject — and, furthermore, it is equally plain that he 
never waived his opposition to the exercise of jurisdic- 
tion or sovereignty in the states, without their con- 
sent, in order to carry on a system of internal im- 
provement, in the absence of an amendment to the 
federal constitution expressly conferring the power. 
To the last moment of his administration, he remained 
the uncompromising opponent of the federalism of 
1798 and 1812, and in his appointments, neither ap- 
proved, nor encouraged, nor favored it. 

His administration was, indeed, "the era of good 
feeling." The rank and file of the old federal opposi- 
tion changed their ground, but the leaders remained 
true to their instincts. The fires of party, therefore, 
only slumbered for the time, to burst forth again with 
increased fury. 

By his mild and conciliatory policy, peace was 
maintained with other governments, and by his benign 
and moderate counsels, tranquillity was secured at 



432 Monroe's administration. 

home. A large and valuable acquisition of territory 
was made ; the foundations for national prosperity 
and greatness were laid ; and when he retired to pri- 
vate life, the American Union was advancing, with 
the vigor and stride of a giant, on its path to true glory 
and fame. 



THE END. 



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